No Idea
by secrethalfblood
Summary: Jason is the leader of the latest wolf pack on the reservation. His life has been pretty weird since joining pack life, but just as he feels he's getting a handle on things, his childhood best friend returns after two years away from the reservation and changes everything. Out of the things that has happened to him, imprinting on Tani has got to be the worst.
1. Chapter 1

_"Tani!" Jason yelled._

 _"Mmm?" I asked not looking up from the sketch pad propped on my knees. For once, the weather was nice in La Push and my best friend Jason and I were taking advantage of it by spending our time outside._

 _"Tani look!"_

 _"Just a second." I said in frustration trying to get the shading in the eyes right. I never could seem to manage it, I knew them so well, but still... Something was missing._

 _He made an irritated noise and dropped from a branch of the tree I'd been leaning against and crossed his arms over his chest. Though he was only six, he was already tall for his age and was looking down at me with a strange expression, as if he wasn't sure if he was annoyed or disappointed._

 _"You were supposed to be watching me." He said moodily._

 _"I was." I muttered distracted, adding more detail to the jawline._

 _"No you weren't." he complained. "You were drawing. You're always drawing."_

 _"And you're always climbing trees."_

 _"But you said you'd watch." He said dejectedly kicking a rock and watching it skitter into the creek that cut through the woods. "Do you ever stop?"_

 _"Stop what?"_

 _"Drawing!"_

 _"I have to eat." I pointed out._

 _"Yeah and you draw then too." He said grumpily, flopping onto the grass and staring up at the clouds in a defeated way._

 _I looked at him feeling a little guilty. He'd been so excited to hang out today now that we had some decent weather, he liked being outdoors and I hadn't been paying him much attention. People often got frustrated with me because of this, but being my best friend, Jason got the worst of it._

 _"You're always so distracted." He said quietly but his expression changed when he glanced at the sketch book._

 _"Is that me?" he asked sitting up grinning and looking down at the paper._

 _I nodded looking up at him feeling a little upset. Even sitting he was much taller than me, and from this angle I could see it was all wrong. I could never draw him well enough._

 _He didn't agree apparently._

 _"It's good." He said inspecting the sketch._

 _"You think so?" I asked uncertainly._

 _"Yeah." He said holding the sketch next to his face and grinning to compare. "Don't you?"_

 _The honest answer was no, he looked so much better in real life. There was something about his dark eyes that glittered in a way I just couldn't seem to capture on paper even if they had been burned into my mind. The same with his confident smile, or the way his black hair just seemed to fall exactly in the right place. Jason was one of those people you just knew was going to grow up to be extremely good looking. Our parents always talked about it._

 _"I dunno," I said shrugging and he handed me back the sketch book._

 _"You know as much as I love being your model." He said laying back down looking much happier as he placed his arms behind his head and I resisted the temptation to roll my eyes. "But do you ever think you could draw me doing something cooler?"_

 _"Like what?" I asked frowning._

 _"I dunno," he said shrugging but grinning all the same. "Shooting lasers out of my eyes or something like that."_

 _"You're such a boy." I muttered and he laughed watching the leaves sway above us._

 _"You know you won't be able to draw all day at school right?"_

 _"I know." I said frowning._

 _"You excited for your first day?"_

 _"Of school?"_

 _"Yeah."_

 _"I dunno." I said honestly. Jason was a year older than me and had already started school on the reservation. I had to admit I was a little nervous._

 _"What's wrong?" he asked sitting up and looking me with concern._

 _"What if I can't make friends?" I asked frowning. I didn't know anyone my age. The only person I really spent time with was Jason and I'd known him since before I could walk._

 _I expected him to laugh, but he didn't. Jason never had this sort of problem, everyone loved him. Whenever our parents took us to the play ground he always was running around the boys while I sat and drawing by myself. He never had any problem finding friends._

 _"You'll be fine." He said confidently._

 _"But what if I'm not?"_

 _"You will be." He said with a grin. "Besides we'll have lunch and recess together, and if anyone's mean to you just tell me and I'll push them off the monkey bars for you."_

 _He tugged one of my braids and I grinned._

 _"Alright. Thanks Jason."_

 _"No problem Tan." He said returning the smile and pulling me down so I was laying next to him. "You know I'll always be there for you."_

 _"Promise?" I asked quietly. I was looking up at the sky but from the corner of my eye I could see his head was turned towards me._

 _"Is that even a question?" he asked quietly. I felt his hand meet mine and he gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Of course. You're the most important person in the world to me."_

 _I smiled._

 _"Nothing is going to change that."_

"Tani?"

I jerked awake and looked around wildly to hear my alarm blaring and see to I'd fallen asleep on my sketch book. I was still holding my pencil and my headphones were next to me blasting music.

"Tani, are you still asleep?"

I groaned as I heard my door open and my cousin Nona stepped into the room. She was already dressed her long black hair pulled into a high pony tail and her light brown eyes staring at me in a mixture of amusement and exasperation as she spotted my sketch book.

"Why am I not surprised?" she asked grinning. "We're you drawing all night?"

I tried to say something, but it came out as a yawn and something that sounded like.

"Yurmph."

"Right," she said amused. "Well hurry up, we're leaving for a school soon."

"Ok." I muttered letting my head fall back on my arms.

She laughed and I heard the door close.

I allowed myself another couple of seconds of laziness before I sat up, slid out of bed, and onto my feet feeling nervous. Finally, after two years of living in California, I was going back to school on the reservation. I'd be entering the high school here as a junior and while a week ago I'd sworn up and down that this was what I wanted, now… Now I wasn't so sure.

I hadn't seen him in so long. Was this really a good idea?

I tried to put this from my mind as I braided my hair and glanced at my reflection in the mirror that hung on my door.

I looked nothing like my cousin. My hair was dark like hers, but that was really the only thing we had in common. Where she was all tall and gorgeous, I was short, and distinctly forgettable. There was only one thing that might have been considered remarkable about my appearance. I had green eyes. No one else in my family had them or knew where they came from, but even then they were hidden behind black square glasses that were fashionable in California, but I was starting to think would be considered dorky on the reservation.

"Well, too late to worry about that now." I muttered to myself then continued to get ready.

I glanced outside, saw the weather was dismal and changed.

I'd just grabbed my jacket and school things, and was about to meet Nona who was calling from the front door, when I glanced at my bed and spotted my sketch book.

I hesitated, my eyes drifting over my latest sketch.

The dark wolf glared at me from the page, it's eyes glittering in the way that had frustrated me so often me when I was younger. It's gaze intense, protective, and somehow familiar…

I shook my head. How often had I drawn it over the last few years?

I walked over and grabbed the sketch book, shoving it in my bag knowing it would feel wrong going to school without it.

"Tani!" Nona shouted.

"Coming!" I called back shouldering my bag and running into the hall.

"Took you long enough." She said rolling her eyes grabbing her keys from the ring next to the door and I took the bagel she handed me.

"Sorry." I said biting into the bagel.

"Well let's get going." She said as we pulled up our hoods and stepped into the familiar drizzle that seemed to reside permanently over La Push.

I let Nona talk as we drove to school, suggesting clubs I should get involved with and people I should try to be friends with. She didn't seem to mind that I didn't answer, Nona would have talked to wall if she thought it would listen. Instead, I watched the mossy landscape pass wondering if at some point today I'd have time to draw any of it.

I knew most people wouldn't understand why I would give up living in California to move back to La Push and if I was honest, I wasn't exactly sure why I'd done it myself. All I knew was that despite my reasons for leaving, from the day I'd left I'd wanted to come back. Don't get me wrong, California was great. The beaches were amazing and the sunlight was something we could only dream about here, but still, something about it was missing. I wasn't sure what it was but I'd felt it the moment I'd come back to the reservation. Something about this place just felt right. It felt like home.

We pulled into the lot in front of the school and I looked at the building that served as the only school on the reservation. It was smaller than I remembered, and people were running towards it trying to avoid the rain.

"You ready?" Nona asked me brightly and I nodded.

We stepped out of the car and made our way with the crowd to the building.

"Think you'll be ok finding your classes on your own?" she asked waving to a couple her friends as we stepped into the entrance hall. "I've got a meeting with the student council before class but I can be late if you need help."

Nona was extremely popular and involved in practically every association the school had to offer. It wasn't surprising she was so well known, she was pretty and one of the nicest people anyone would meet. Even when we were younger and no one was that interested in me she always made time for us to hang out. She treated me more like a sister than a cousin and I could tell she was worried about leaving me on my own on my first day.

"I'll be fine." I assured her. "You can go ahead."

"Alright." She said a little uncertainly. "I'll see you later. Let me know if you need anything, ok?"

I nodded and she jogged over to her friends who made their way down the hall in the direction of the teacher's lounge where I guessed the meeting would be held.

I walked through the halls, lined with class doors and gray lockers, surprised to find I'd even missed the rainy weather. I smiled with the familiarity of it.

No one really recognized me as I passed through the halls, but I wasn't surprised. I'd never exactly been a social butterfly so I was a little startled when I'd heard my name shouted over the crowd.

"Tani!"

I turned to see a tall boy rushing towards me, grinning as he tackled me into a hug.

"Alex! You're crushing me!" I gasped and he laughed as he let me go.

"When did you get back?" he asked excitedly.

"Just this weekend." I muttered rubbing my ribs and looking up at my best friend.

"You're living with Nona now right?" he asked trying to sound casual but it didn't fool me. It was obvious that the years that had passed had brought no change in his crush on my cousin. Not that she'd ever known, or he was planning to tell her.

"Yeah, she helped me move." I said grinning.

Even in these last few years when I hadn't seen her as much, she always willing to drop everything to be there when I needed her. So the moment I asked if I could stay with her and her parents while mine went to New Mexico on sabbatical she immediately sorted everything out. She was even the one to reregister me at the school on the reservation.

"Jeez, when did you get so… tall?" I asked suddenly realizing just how far up I had to look to see him.

"I know." He said looking pleased. "I've shot up like crazy over the summer, I grew three inches just last month."

Clearly he was pleased about this, but the smile I gave him was slightly forced. Our friendship had been founded on the bond we'd formed when we were little and we were the two smallest people of our age on the reservation. Now I was still tiny, and he'd not only passed the better side of average height, but was on the border of being considered very tall. I had to admit, I wasn't exactly thrilled about the change.

"Is that natural?" I asked frowning and he shrugged. His height might have been a wake up call and his dark hair was longer than I'd remembered, reaching down to his chin now, but the cheerful face was exactly as I remembered it. Although, it was possible he might have gotten just a tad bit more attractive.

"I dunno but I hope it keeps up." he said looking proud. "At this rate I'll be as tall as the Quileute Crew by Halloween. Then no one can call me short stack ever again."

"The Quileute Crew?" I asked trying not to laugh. "What?"

In answer, he nodded down the hall to where four well-built boys walked in a group, towering over the rest of the students in the hall. They were each over six feet tall but despite their height, moved with a certain confidence and grace about them. Somehow they managed to display a sense of individual power while at the same time, move together in what was almost unnatural synchronicity. Each of them had short dark hair, and rugged good looks that seemed so similar they could have been brothers. They might have been hard to tell apart, but my stomach clenched when I recognized the tallest, most attractive of the four.

The reason I'd been forced to leave La Push in the first place.

"Jason's still popular I see." I said quietly as I caught several girls looking at him with undisguised longing. His friends, although they looked more like lackeys with the way they were walking one step behind him, were all laughing at something he'd said. Clearly, he was the one in charge.

"Popular." Alex let out a hollow laugh. "Are you kidding? Tani he owns this school. Practically owns the council too."

"What do you mean?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"Don't you remember the stories about gangs in La Push?" he asked and I nodded my eyes not leaving Jason who, like the rest of the school, hadn't seemed to notice me.

Every time it seemed like trouble threatened the reservation, there would always be at least one group of guys, though there had been a girl once, who brought it upon themselves to create a weird little cult of 'Protectors' as they called it, to 'guard' the tribe. They were always tall and strong like the ones in front of me, and no one dared mess with them. Even if you didn't like them, you couldn't help but respect them and it wasn't just their intimidating physical presence. There was something different about them, something that screamed authority and there was no one in that group in which that authority was more pronounced than Jason.

"So he's the new cult leader?" I asked.

"Yeah."

Most of the younger generations, like me, thought they were crazy even if we'd never say it to their faces. It was clear they were just buying into the Elder's brainwashing about tribal pride, but the council took them seriously. Not only took them seriously, but they seemed to think these fanatics were heroes that could do nothing wrong, but these groups had been few and far between over the last couple of years. Ever since Jacob Black, the last gang leader with any real authority, had gone off with his apparent soul mate Renesmee Cullen, the gangs had just sort of stopped. Perhaps it had been the blow that someone like Jacob had left the reservation that caused them to die out for a while. It had been quite the scandal at the time, after all, the Elders had never liked the Cullens, though I had no idea why.

"I didn't think he'd get involved with all that." I said frowning. Jason had never really been all that into the traditional tribe stuff, no more than the rest of us anyways. "All they ever talk about is protecting our land, and our people. From what exactly? I'd like to know who's threatening us."

"They're not so bad." Alex said in such a tone that I looked away from Jason and up at him.

"Don't tell me you want to join them?"

"What? No!" he said quickly but avoided my gaze. "Of course not. It's just. Well, they're not really doing anything wrong are they?"

I raised an eyebrow.

"Not that I want to be one of them." He added quickly.

"Good." I said. "Because we've got enough egomaniac tough guys in this place with Jason and his friends running around. You don't need to help."

I didn't mean to be so rude to him, especially not on our first day back, but seeing Jason after all this time wasn't exactly pleasant. But then again, I never thought clearly when it came to him.

He'd been my neighbor growing up. He lived in the house next to mine but after his parents had died, and he'd spent his child hood terrorizing me.

I had no idea what made Jason hate me so much, when we were kids we were best friends and I'd really liked him. I thought I'd felt a sort of connection when we were introduced and he was one of the few people who'd ever expressed any interest in the quiet, spacy Mason girl. I had no idea what it was, but spending time with him had been so easy and I had to admit I liked the fact he was always wanting to have play dates, but as we got older things sort of fell apart

He got angry when ever any other boy tried to play with me and after the death of his parents was then he started making fun of me for my height. Apparently, the fact that he was a year older than me didn't matter, anyone smaller than him on the playground was fair game to be pushed around. He'd gotten everyone to tease me, call me names, and threatened people who'd talked to me until they decided it would be easier just to ignore me rather than deal with the kid with anger issues. Nobody was allowed to hang out with me except for him, and of course, I didn't want to talk to him so he only got worse. People were so afraid of Jason that eventually the only friend I'd had was Alex, who for some reason he never bothered. He'd take and break my things, lock me in the supply closet in our elementary school, and find new ways to scare me every week.

But that was kid stuff, by the end of middle school, when he was a freshman, Jason was a full on terror. He'd managed to push me off the rocks on First Beach causing me to break my arm, give me a concussion in gym during dodge ball in seventh grade, and worst of all, two weeks before I was supposed to start high school, he had left me stranded in the woods in the middle of the night.

That night had been the worst of my life. I was convinced I was going to die I'd been lost for three days, and that was when I'd seen it. The monster that haunted my nightmares. When they'd finally found me they'd said I was just in shock but I knew what I'd seen. The elders had forbidden anyone to talk about it, but that didn't stop them. Soon, everyone on the reservation was talking about the girl who'd lost it and was screaming about monsters in the forest.

By that point I couldn't take it any more. I didn't want to leave but my parents didn't give me a choice, so we moved to California where I attended an art school until the end of my sophomore year when my parents decided to go on sabbatical to New Mexico and I begged them to let me live with my cousin Nona on the reservation.

I wasn't sure why I'd agreed to go with him that night, looking back, it was probably the stupidest thing I've ever done, but that was what I hated most about Jason. It wasn't all the terrible things he'd done to me, though there were plenty. It was the fact that no matter what he did, if he ever apologized, I'd always trust him again. I wasn't sure what it was, maybe he was good at pretending to be sincere, but whenever he'd come around I'd always felt like there was something more. I wanted to be around him, it just felt right. When I sat down and thought about it, though I tried not to, I wasn't sure who I was angrier with. Jason, or myself. It just didn't make sense. Why did I always fall for his tricks? What was wrong with me?

"I'm sure he won't be as bad." Alex muttered. "He's changed a lot you know, gotten more mature. Ever since he started that group-"

But I didn't hear the rest of his sentence because I heard a laugh and something big and solid had collided with me from behind me.

I dropped my books and just as I was about to hit the floor I was caught by a pair of warm, strong arms.

"Sorry about that." Said an amused voice and I froze. It might have been years, but I knew that voice. I'd recognize it anywhere. "You're so short I didn't see you."

"It's fine." I said struggling to break his grip, if I didn't look at him maybe this would all just blow over, he'd go away…

"Hold on a second." He said still laughing. "Are you sure you're-"

But he cut himself off and I winced.

"Tani?" he asked softly as if he couldn't believe it.

"Let me go Jason." I said still not looking at him.

"Tani wait," he said as I continued to struggle, but he seemed not to even notice. "I want to talk to you."

"I don't want to talk." I said shaking my head knowing what would happen if I did. I'd forgive him and I didn't want to.

"I just want-"

"Just let me go." I said very aware that we were attracting several people's attention around the hall.

To my surprise, he did. Not expecting it, I lurched forward and for the second time in seconds I found myself hurtling towards the ground.

Jason caught me again and this time I was forced to look at him.

"Look I know you probably don't want to see me but I just…" he started but his eyes met mine his voice died.

They were exactly as I remembered them, dark, intense, and they were looking at me as if I was the only thing that mattered in the world. I felt as if the breath had been stolen out of my lungs.

"Uh oh." One of his friends muttered while a second one swore.

I swayed, confused, but Jason easily held me steady.

"Are you alright?" he asked and I was surprised to hear his voice was frantic, with deep, genuine concern.

"I'm fine." I said shaking my head trying to break his grip on me. "Let go of me."

"Do you need to go to the nurse?" he asked doing as I asked, but catching me again when I took an unsteady step.

"No." I said trying to sort my thoughts. "If anyone should go to the nurse it's you. You're burning up."

His skin, where it had contacted mine, felt as if he had a fever.

"I'll be fine." He said and I realized he hadn't looked away from me the entire time, not even at his friends, or to check and see if anyone was coming down the halls. I was used to his undivided attention, I'd always had it when we were kids no matter our relationship but he'd never looked at me like this. Like I was the only thing that mattered to him.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" I asked my head still spinning.

His answer was to pick me up in his arms and start walking straight towards what I assumed was the nurse's office. I was hit with an overwhelming sense of familiarity in his arms, something about it felt right, safe, as if I were home back with my parents when I was a little girl. For the first time in months, I didn't feel like a part of me, the part that had disappeared when I'd left the reservation, was missing. For the first time in a two years, I felt complete. It was so strong he'd made it half way down the hall before I'd remembered who was holding me.

"What are you doing?" I asked him in panic. "Put me down."

Again I was amazed to see he'd done exactly as I asked.

"You should see the nurse." He said. "You look like you're about to faint."

"I'll be fine."

"But-" he started.

"No." I said finally getting angry. I couldn't let myself get involved with him. Not again. "Leave me alone."

"I-Tani." He looked desperate, not at all his confident self. He couldn't even seem to finish his sentences.

I glanced at him but felt it my glare soften into a disbelieving stare as he obviously struggled with something he was clearly unable to say. He stood there, just staring at me, as if he couldn't look away.

"What is wrong with you?" I asked uncertainly.

"I-I have to go." He said quickly and with what looked like an enormous effort, he looked away from me and made his way to the nearest exit his friends hot on his heels.

"You can't just leave school!" I shouted after him but apparently he could. He passed three teachers on his way out, followed by his friends, and none of them said a word. They simply watched, curious as the boys took off running towards the woods.

"He can't just do that," I asked when Alex had caught up to me. "Can he?"

"It's not the first time he has." He said shaking his head. "Tani, what was that all about? Why was he acting so weird?"

"I have no idea." I said quietly. "But what does it matter? I think it's better if we just avoid each other anyways."

"I guess." He said with a shrug sounding unconvinced.

"What?" I asked suspiciously.

"Nothing." He said quickly.

"You know I can tell when you're lying right? What are you thinking?"

"Well." He looked uncomfortable. "It's just, I used to think he hated you, but after you moved, he kept coming up to me and Nona talking about you."

"Probably just wanted to know if he could bully me long distance." I muttered darkly.

"I don't think so." He said with an uncharacteristic frown. "I think he felt bad about what happened in the woods. He kept asking us if you'd mentioned it."

"He did?" I asked in shock.

"Yeah. Maybe he was afraid seeing you might bring it up again. It would explain why he looked so upset."

I hadn't thought of this and was distracted by the possibility as we started walking to class. I was so lost in thought I didn't realize Alex had stopped until he was already five feet behind me, looking nervous.

"Alex? What are you-" but I cut myself, the reason for his trepidation becoming apparent as my cousin stepped into the hallway with a few of her popular friends.

She waved cheerfully at me. I smiled back.

The girls gave me intense, but not unkind looks, almost as if they were expecting something. One of the girls had her cell phone out and whispered something to the one next to her, and both girls gave me a significant look.

"Isn't that Rachel and Sarah Cowell?" I asked recognizing two of the pretty girls, they both had shoulder length black hair and the similar features. If memory served me correctly, Rachel was a senior, and Sarah was in our year. Like Nona and I, they were cousins.

Unnoticed by Nona, Rachel relayed the information to the fourth girl, who's hair was pulled into two braids that fell almost to her waist. She too looked at me in wonder after I saw one of the one closest to me, Rachel, clearly mutter one word. Jason.

"Yeah, with Nona and Amanda Call?" he asked and I nodded. Amanda was a new addition to this group, a sophomore.

"Why are they looking at me like that?" I asked looking away uncomfortably. I'd gone from invisible, to suddenly a magnet of attention to people who'd never noticed me before.

"I've no idea." He said honestly his eyes lingering on my cousin but then he turned back to me. "You'd better hope they don't want to be friends though."

"Why?" I asked curiously.

"Because you'd never get away from Jason then. Everyone but Nona there is dating one of the crew. That's usually who they spend most of their time with. You know it's funny." He said. "They look at you the way Jason and his friend look at me sometimes."

"What do you think it means?" I asked.

He shrugged.

"I dunno, but it feels like they're waiting for something."

"What could girls like that have anything to do with me?" I asked. I wasn't tall and beautiful like them in fact, I was so short Jason, who had to be between six five or six six now hadn't even been able to see me as he was walking. Compared to Alex and the rest of them, I looked like a lawn gnome.

"Again I have no idea." He said and I looked up at him, and by up, I meant up.

"Did you get taller?" I asked in alarm and he laughed.

"Tani, it's not possible to grow visibly taller in less than ten minutes." He said amused.

"Are you sure?" I asked but I was grinning.

He put an arm around my shoulder and I was alarmed to feel that although he wasn't as hot as Jason, he was burning up.

"Are you feeling ok?" I asked reaching up to put a hand on his face.

"Yeah, why?" he asked.

"You feel like you're a thousand degrees." I said frowning.

"Yeah my Mom has been saying that recently, but honestly I feel fine." He said grinning. "Actually better than ever. I'm stronger, faster, you know I'm actually getting picked first in gym these days when we play sports."

"That is a first." I muttered and again he laughed but I felt a sense of unease. I didn't know why but looking at this taller, stronger version of my friend was alarming. I'd thought his face was the same when I first saw him, but now that I looked at it, and examined him with careful scrutiny, I realized that it was only his expression when he saw me was the same. He looked much older than seventeen now, his face thinner, his jaw more pronounced. I was stunned to see that he wasn't just a little better looking. He really was attractive. Nothing, except for the lighthearted laugh and the cheerful smile remained of my childhood friend. While I knew it was personality that counted, and his good nature seemed unchanged I couldn't help but think he looked rather like Jason and his friends, even if he wasn't quite as muscular or tall. Yet.

This unsettled me as we walked together towards our first class.

I wanted nothing to do with the La Push gang, but I was unable to shake the feeling that if asked, Alex would join in a heartbeat. Then he'd be off with the popular people and where would that leave me?


	2. Chapter 2

Jpov

First was the feeling of weightlessness. From the moment Tani's eyes had met mine, the entire world had vanished leaving nothing behind but her, the only thing that was keeping me tied to it. Then, I was suddenly rushed back into reality knowing nothing was ever going to be the same. She was the only thing that really mattered, everything else in my life, school, the pack, even myself, came second.

Then the panic set in.

This couldn't be happening. Not now. Not with her.

I wasn't even aware of phasing, in fact, I wasn't even sure how I'd gotten out of the school. The next thing I knew I was in front of Sam and Emily Uley's house, pounding on the front door shouting to be let in as I tried to force Tani out of my mind.

"Jason?" It was Emily, Sam's wife, who answered and she looked worried. "What are you doing here? Why aren't you at school? Where's your pack?"

I'd made it here before the others, I was the fastest, but I knew they'd appear any second.

"I need to talk to Sam." I said desperately.

Sam was our go to guy whenever there was something we needed to know about wolves. He'd made the decision to stop phasing and live with Emily years ago after they married. He had a kid of his own now, but he'd never truly left pack life. He and Emily were constantly surrounded by us, acting the adoptive parents of our family of wolves and helped us get through our supernatural problems where our real families couldn't.

"He's at the store." She said looking a little alarmed. "What's wrong?"

I didn't answer, only walked in when she pulled back the door and collapsed into a chair, letting my head fall into my hands. I closed my eyes only to see Tani, at the moment her light, perfect green eyes had met mine.

Again I felt as if the world had stopped and then suddenly ceased to exist. For the briefest of moments, I experienced a weightlessness, as if the pull of gravity had disappeared, but then was drawn back to the earth, no, not the earth, to her, with a much more powerful force. One that still pulled me now, tugging at my very being to get back to her. To see her again.

Luckily, I quickly was distracted. There was a high pitched giggle, as a set of tiny footsteps ran into the room and the Uley's daughter, Tiffany, hopped into my lap babbling excitedly as one of her adoptive big brothers appeared in her home.

"Jason!" Tiffany said happily her pig tails swinging wildly as she ran towards me and jumped into my lap. "You're home!"

"Hey Tiff," I said. It always amazed me how comfortable a five year old was with enormous werewolves. You'd think she'd be terrified, but she loved us. I felt bad for whoever she'd end up dating, as if Sam wasn't intimidating enough, Tiffany had four very protective older brothers. Maybe she'd get lucky and some future generation shape changer would imprint on her. Then there'd be nothing to worry about.

The door banged open and I didn't have to look up to know who'd walked in.

"Chase, what happened?" Emily asked as my best friend and second in command Chase Harroway came into the small living room, along with Aster Harson and Lewis Barns, the two remaning members of the pack.

"He's imprinted." He said gruffly. He was tapping something on his phone and I knew he was texting his girlfriend Rachel about where we had gone and what had happened.

"That's wonderful." She said happily while Tiffany looked extremely irritated.

"Does this mean you're going to ignore me for another girl like the rest of them?" she asked grouchily. It was no secret that out of the entire pack I was her favorite, no doubt due to the fact that when ever the girls were with us, I was the only one who paid any attention to her.

"Tiffany, mind your manners." Emily chided sternly. "Why don't go back to your room and play? Your brothers need to talk."

"But mom," she whined.

"No buts." Emily said stubbornly and Tiffany trotted rather grumpily back to her room. We waited for her door to shut before we continued to speak.

"It's not wonderful." Aster said quietly. He was a sophomore, the youngest in the group and the most recent to start phasing.

"Why?" Emily asked. She'd always been concerned at how in the entire pack, I had been the only one not to imprint despite the fact that I'd been phasing the longest. For two years now I'd been waiting, wondering what was taking so long when the others had had it happen in a matter of weeks, the longest being Aster, for whom it had taken a month while Amanda was on vacation over the summer.

"She hates him." Lewis said and I winced.

"Don't be ridiculous." Emily said impatiently. "No one on the reservation hates Jason. Who is this girl?"

"Vitani." Chase said in barely a whisper and I sensed rather than saw her confused expression.

"The tiny little Mason girl who left the reservation years ago?"

I nodded.

"She's back?"

"Yeah," Aster said. "Jason accidentally ran into her today at school and well," he gestured towards me hopelessly.

"Well I'm sure she'll come around." Emily said uncertainly.

"She won't." I said bleakly. "She hates me and has every right to."

"Why?"

I didn't answer but knew the others knew what I was seeing. Sam standing above me after three days in the woods I hadn't realized had passed. I remembered panicking, asking where Tani was and what had happened and he'd explained. She'd been found, injured and terrified dozens of miles from where he'd found me.

I remembered the horror crashing into me as he explained what had happened and what I'd done. He told me what I was and although he advised me to leave Tani alone, I found myself at her parents' door begging to see her. To some how try and find a way to explain. But they turned me away. Told me they were leaving. And the fear and shame that had filled me that day, came back with increased strength until it developed into actual pain. There hadn't been a day I hadn't thought of her, and now I knew there never would be.

Suddenly, things were making so much more sense. Why no matter how angry she got with me, I always wanted her around, and after she left, I never wanted a girlfriend. No matter how many girls I dated, it never seemed to last. At first I thought it was because I didn't want to hurt anyone the way I constantly seemed to be hurting Tani. Sam had explained to me that I needed to be careful around people when adjusting to my new strength, which was why I kept accidentally injuring her. Tani was the only girl I'd ever really felt any sort of connection to, and I'd had no control, I couldn't stop myself. Every time a girl had shown interest, I'd just remember Tani along with fear of losing control. Even if I was able to keep my temper in check now, and gauge my new strength, I figured I'd just never gotten over it which is why I'd never really cared that much about dating.

But then Chase had imprinted on Rachel and I completely lost all interest. I could hear Chase's thoughts about her, then the others about their imprintees, and knew there was no point. I wasn't going to date a girl when I knew something so much stronger than a high school relationship out there waiting for me, something real, and I wanted it. Why bother when I'd know the person I'd fall in love with the moment I saw them? I was starting to think it was never going to happen. Now I understood. I finally knew why.

I'd never want anyone but Tani around, it was the same way even before I'd started phasing only know it was infinitely stronger. Even when we were little kids and she hadn't wanted me back, I did everything I could to make sure I was her only choice. I'd thought, as we were older, she might change her mind especially if I left her and her friend Alex alone, it wasn't until I realized that he was most likely going to join the pack why I was ok with her being around him, but at this point I was starting to change. I wasn't used to the new strength or the increase in my already short temper, sometimes the anger at her rejection got the better of me and I kept accidentally doing things to hurt her. Even though I knew she must be terrified of me and she would be better off with out me I kept coming back.

"They didn't get along when they were little." Chase said quietly, sparing me the need to respond.

"But what does that matter?" Emily asked. "If it's just kids stuff then…"

Her voice faded when the others shook their heads.

"Do you remember that night when the entire tribe was looking for her in the woods, and they found her saying she'd run into a monster?"

"Yes." She said frowning and then realization seemed to dawn on her. "Oh Jason, don't tell me it was you."

I nodded.

"That wasn't the only thing either."

"Why didn't you tell her?" she asked incredulously. "Why is all this just happening now?"

"Her parents wouldn't let me see her." I said quietly. It was the only time I remembered begging in my life, I hadn't been able to calm down for a week when they said they were taking her away. I'd been stuck in wolf form until Sam had found me and forced me to calm down.

"Well what if you explained now?"

"No." I said standing up. I might have been in better control now but Tani was tiny, I'd already proven to be a danger to her. If she didn't want me around, I wasn't going to be the one to drag her into my world of werewolves and vampires and who knew what else was out there no matter what it cost me. "I've done enough damage. She's safer if she never knows."

I began walking towards the door.

"But Jason-" Emily started but I cut her off.

"Tell Sam I need to see him."

But she didn't have to, Sam was outside, walking up towards the house with a bag of groceries in his arms as I stepped out into the rain. He looked older than most shape shifters, he'd continued to age now that he'd given up phasing, but there was still the familiar tall, athletic stature and powerful grace in the way he walked that clued anyone who knew about us in to what he was. He stopped when he spotted me.

"Jason," He said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I need you to tell me how to unimprint." I said quickly the word sounding strange in my ears, I almost couldn't say it. I didn't want to give her up.

"You can't." he said frowning and looking at me in suspicion. "Why does it matter to you? You haven't-" he stopped seeing the look on my face. "Who is the girl?"

"Tani." I said quietly and he looked troubled.

"She's back?'

I nodded.

"That is a problem." He said his frown deepening.

"So you see why I need to turn it off," I said stiffly. "I don't want to hurt her again."

He was the one who explained to me why all of the accidents I'd been having were happening, the one who told me I needed to be careful around people otherwise we could accidentally injure them without meaning to.

"You can't turn it off." He said bleakly. "It doesn't go away."

"Well then she can't be around me." I said shaking my head my body going cold at the thought. "She needs to leave."

I knew if she stayed here, I wouldn't be able to keep myself from her. She had to go, leave the reservation as soon as possible.

"And what are you going to tell her family?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

"Anything." I said running my fingers through my hair feeling slightly desperate.

"Jason you can't just send her away." He said injecting a hint of common sense into his tone.

"Then what do I do?" I asked in panic.

He sighed.

"If you don't want to risk her getting hurt. You're right, you're going to have to stay away from her."

"I don't think I can." I muttered. I could still feel the force pulling me back to her. It was stronger than gravity, it wouldn't allow me to break free.

"Then you're going to have to talk to her." He said shrugging.

That prospect was almost worse. I couldn't bear to see those perfect eyes staring at me with as much fear and anger as they had earlier. Lewis was right. She hated me.

Of course I'd known this since the day she left but admitting it to myself now was worse. Cold numbness spread throughout my body as it began to shake.

"I'll tell the council you'll be gone for a while." He said softly and I nodded.

"Chase is in charge for now." I muttered and he made a noise that I took to mean he understood.

He walked back to the house and looked up at the sky as the rain grew heavier. I didn't mind, it was cool on my skin as I phased and took off running. I did the best trying to ignore the mess of thoughts that were coming from my pack members minds. Lewis and Aster, who were both younger than us felt sorry for me, but Chase's thoughts had a strange optimism to them. He was my best friend since Tani and I had had our falling out, and he'd been there from the beginning.

'I know you probably don't want to hear this.' He said and I realized his thoughts were directed towards me. 'But even when we were kids, she was always much tougher than you gave her credit for.'

I tuned him out, not really sure where I was going in particular as I ran through the woods but then was shocked to find myself hours later, on the beach, where Tani and Alex were walking, their arms linked as they laughed splashed through sandy puddles in the rain.

I backed away in horror.

I hadn't meant to come here, in fact, I hadn't meant to go anywhere at all. Autopilot had just taken over and the force pulling me towards her had brought me here, as something as natural as breathing.

"Alex no stop!" she yelled laughing as he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder with ease and I felt a stab of jealousy flash through me.

If it had been anyone other than Alex I would have been angry, but he would join the pack soon, that I was sure of, and two people didn't imprint on the same person. Besides, everyone knew how he felt about Nona, everyone but Nona that was, and I'd be willing to bet within days after he'd transformed that was who he'd imprint on. But I also couldn't be angry because Tani looked so happy. He was her best friend, and if she'd rather be here with him than with me I could live with that. As long as she was happy…

I walked away, aware of a sense of dread creeping through me, followed by a heavy feeling in my stomach. Would she still be smiling like that when Alex joined us? When for the first few weeks of his phasing, I'd have to force him to stay away from her, just for her safety?

I knew the answer to that.

Because of me, he was the only real friend she had on the reservation. She'd be devastated if he stopped talking to her, and I knew who she would blame.


	3. Chapter 3

Tpov

Jason avoided school for the rest of the day, which didn't really matter to me but that night, I had a very strange dream.

 _I was walking through the dark woods on my own, feeling like I was being watched._

 _There was snarling sound and my pulse quickened. Was it back?_

 _"Tani."_

 _I jumped when a hand touched my shoulder and turned to see Jason, but not as I was used to seeing him in these woods, he wasn't fifteen anymore. He was taller, he looked older, his age now and his expression was worried, like he'd seen way too much of the world for an eighteen year old._

 _But just as his appearance was different, so was the feeling he gave me. He gently took my face between his hands, his eyes met mine, and suddenly, all the anxiety and fear I'd felt since I entered the woods had vanished. He smiled for a moment, and brushed my cheek with his thumb, his worries temporarily forgotten but I found all I could do was stare at him._

 _Suddenly, he went rigid and he looked up, away from me and farther into the woods._

 _A cold wind blew around us, rustling the leaves in the trees and he pulled me closer to him._

 _I turned and what I saw almost made me scream._

 _In front of us was a man, blood leaking from the corner of his lips, and down his neck. He was tall, disgustingly pale, and might have been attractive if it weren't for the blood red color of his murderous eyes._

 _"Don't look Tani." Jason said quietly pulling me even closer, but though my body was trembling with fear, I couldn't look away._

 _The man smiled a deranged smile as his eyes darted between Jason and I._

 _"Oh I see." He said as the side of my neck began to burn. My knees went weak and Jason had to catch me as I collapsed. "_ _Your mutt's had time to grow."_ _He mused. "I should have killed you a long time ago. He's not a puppy anymore is he?"_

My alarm went off and I sat up, wide eyed, gasping for air.

"What the?" I asked in panic looking around, for a second, not recognizing my room for the briefest of moments, but as my breathing slowed, so did my heart rate along with the realization of what had happened. It was morning. In a few hours I'd be at school. Would Jason be there?

"Get a hold of yourself." I muttered slamming my hand down on the top of the alarm clock, and the repetitive blast of noise cut out. "Just a dream."

I slid out of bed and looked out the window.

As always it was cloudy and it looked like it was going to rain. My heart skipped a beat when I saw Jason, in nothing but sweatpants as he walked bare chested in what had to be forty degree weather, straight for the woods.

"What is wrong with him?" I asked myself. He had to have been freezing.

I blushed when I remembered that in my dream he'd also not been wearing a shirt, though in the dream I hadn't realized how strong his body had become. His muscles were almost impossibly perfect, and while he'd always been good looking, this was just ridiculous.

Was this what he'd been doing all this time? Skipping school just to wander around the reservation? Maybe to lift weights?

"Tani?"

I jumped and smacked my head into the window.

"Ow," I muttered rubbing the point of impact and looking over my shoulder to see Nona had poked her head through my door.

"Are you alright?" she asked clearly trying not to laugh.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"I was just letting you know that breakfast is ready." She tilted her head curiously. "What are you looking at?"

"Oh, uh," I said quickly glancing back outside and noticing with relief that Jason had disappeared. "I was just checking to see if I needed a rain coat."

She gave me a suspicious look.

"You're joking right?" she asked raining an eyebrow. "You always need a rain coat here."

"Yeah well, I guess all the time I spent in California caused me to forget." I said lamely but she didn't question it.

She left the room and I looked back out the window in a vain attempt of spotting Jason again. I didn't know why I cared, but I wanted to know what he was up to. What could be so important that he got to spend his time wandering around in the woods while the rest of us had to go to school?

I tried unsuccessfully to put it from my mind as I went through the motions of getting ready for the day. I was just finishing breakfast when I heard the phone ring.

"It's for you." My aunt said handing me the phone.

"Hello?" I asked putting it to my ear.

"Hey Tani." Said a familiar voice.

"Hey Alex."

"I figured I'd call and offer you a ride, unless you want to drive with your Nona and her friends."

"No." I said quickly. While Nona's friends were all very nice they had a tendency to talk about Jason whenever I was around. I didn't understand it. Whenever his name was brought up, they'd always looked at me as if I'd had some sort of authority on the subject. "If you could pick me up that would awesome. Thanks."

"No problem."

"Do you want money for gas?"

"Don't worry about it." He said casually. "Your house is on the way."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I'll see you in twenty minutes ok?"

"Alright." I said and heard him hang up.

"I haven't talked to that boy in so long." Nona said walking into the kitchen. "How is he?"

"Tall." I said grinning

"I know." She said her eyes going wide. "I almost didn't recognize him this year. How tall is he now?"

"Almost six feet."

"Well good for him." She said smiling. "You should invite him over for dinner tonight."

I knew Nona had always secretly hoped that one day Alex and I might get together, which showed how truly oblivious she was about his feelings for her, but it was hard to want to date someone when the love you had for them was strictly platonic. Especially when you knew the feeling was mutual.

"You know now that I think about it." She said thoughtfully. "He's gotten really cute."

I grinned.

She'd always liked Alex because he was my best friend, but I had the feeling she'd never really taken him seriously because she'd always been much taller than him. I wondered if that would change now that he was a good four or five inches taller than her.

It was raining again by the time we reached the school and the parking lot was nothing but a muddy gravelly mess. Alex and I ran for cover under an awning that jutted out over the main entrance. I saw we were some of the first few people here this morning. The school hadn't even been unlocked yet.

"Stylish." He snickered when I pulled my wet hair back into an out of control bun and I rolled my eyes trying to wipe the rain off my glasses.

"I've got no one to impress, besides you can hardly criticize water locks." I said as the water form his hair dripped onto his shoulders and then frowned. "Oh my god." I said narrowing my eyes and looking at him closer.

"What?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

"Are you… steaming?" I asked my eyes going wide.

"Come again?"

"Look!" I said gesturing to the thin wisps of vapor rising from his wet skin, and disappearing in the cold breeze brought on by the weather. While I was shuddering underneath my jacket he was in a short sleeved t shirt and looked perfectly comfortable. "You've got steam rising off of you."

"Huh." He said in mild interest as he inspected his arms. "So I do."

"Aren't you cold?" I asked him incredulously shivering again.

"No."

I looked at him with amazement, and was unpleasantly reminded of Jason earlier, walking in the cold weather without seeming to notice it at all.

"Just how high is your fever?" I asked him remembering him mentioning his mother wanting to go to the Doctor.

"Last time I checked I was at one oh two. But don't worry." He assured me when my eyes went wide. "I feel fine, I mean, I'd go to the doctor but I don't feel sick."

"Should I put that on your tomb stone then? Here lies Alex. He was a good man. He didn't feel sick."

He chuckled.

"Honestly Tani, you worry too much." He said as an administrator walked passed us and unlocked the front doors. "Don't you think if there was something wrong with me I'd know?"

"To be honest going off your recent judgment I'd say you'd be the last one to know."

"Relax." He assured me as we walked into the main hallway. "Everything is going to be fine. I'm not dead yet am I?" he asked smirking down at me.

"Don't tempt fate like that." I said annoyed. "Other wise your karma will start to feel like it's been issued a challenge."

"Maybe it has." He said with an impish grin.

"Aaaaand you've just sealed your fate with the accident gods." I said. It was our inside joke about his klutziness, saying that he was cursed by the accident gods. They struck him with unfortunate situations whenever he found a way to anger them. "Watch out for falling pianos, or random objects sprouting out of nowhere to trip over."

"Not any more Tani." He said grinning. "My days of bumping into things and knocking them over are all part of the past."

I had to admit that he did seem to have out grown the awkward clumsy stage. Now that his height seemed to be catching up with his age, he was actually quite graceful in a way that I wasn't too fond of. It reminded me too much of Jason and his friends.

"Speaking of things from the past, want to come over for dinner tonight?"

"I dunno." He said frowning. "A couple of guys were going to go to the beach tonight to play a game of soccer."

I stared at him in shock.

"It's raining, and besides you hate sports."

"That was when I sucked at them." He said grinning and I decided to up the ante.

"That's a shame. Nona was the one who suggested I invited you. I think she was looking forward to seeing you." I said this casually, making sure to look a head of me, but out of the corner of my eye I could see his smile.

"Oh." He said his tone changing. "Well I'd hate to let her down."

"Excellent." I said grinning. "So I should tell her you're coming?"

"Yeah." He said happily.

I looked up to smile at him, but something caught my eye and I turned to see six people walking through the door. Three boys and three girls, each couple was holding hands and talked as if they were more of a family than a group of friends.

"That's weird." Alex said frowning.

"What?"

"Usually when they're all together like that Jason walks in with them."

"Maybe he got tired of being the seventh wheel." I said looking at the couples in distaste. It was clear that they were all totally in love, making it awkward for the rest of us to look at.

All the girls wearing the hand woven bracelets that were practically engagement rings here on the reservation. I found this to be quite dramatic, I mean Amanda and Aster were sophomores, but none of the elders were bothered by it. In fact, they seemed to encourage it. From what Alex had told me, people talked about them like they were already married.

I shuddered, that kind of commitment to anyone, let alone a member of Jason's crew, was just alarming. I couldn't handle it.

"Maybe." Alex conceded, though I could tell he didn't quite believe it. "Or maybe he's not coming to school today? He could be sick."

"He's not sick." I said and rolled my eyes when he raised an eyebrow at me. "Don't look at me like that, I saw him walking around outside this morning he looked fine."

I blushed remembering my dream.

"He was going into the woods." I continued trying to change the subject before he could notice my cheeks going red. "Any idea what that's about?"

He shrugged.

"I know they spend a lot of time camping, and sometimes they miss school, but usually they go together."

"Camping?" I said confused and looking back at him. While it didn't surprise me that Jason wanted to be outside, I couldn't believe he'd be able to convince anyone else to go. "Who'd want to go camping in this weather?"

"I try not to question what they do." He said frowning. "Sometimes I'm not sure I want to know."

"What does that mean?"

"I dunno." He said looking uncomfortable. "But they're secretive you know? Like there's something they can't tell us."

"It can't be that big of a secret." I said. "How much trouble can one group of teenage boys get into with out the council getting involved?"

"Well why don't you ask them?"

"What?"

"They're all staring at us."

I looked back at the group, the tall boys hand in hand with their girlfriends. Alex was right, they were all looking directly at us.

"C'mon." I said awkwardly and turning away. "Let's just get to class…"

He didn't respond.

"Alex?"

"Huh?" he asked suddenly snapping back to reality and looking down at me. "What?"

"What's your problem?" I asked raising my eyebrows, but his problem became apparent almost immediately as I spotted my cousin Nona walking through the school's entrance. "Ah."

She waved at us cheerfully then walked over to her girlfriends, looking a little intimidated by the massive boys, apparently still not used to their presence over the past year or so.

"Go talk to her." I encouraged.

"No." he said shaking his head quickly.

"Oh this is ridiculous." I said shooting him an exasperated look and then doing a double take. His smile had faded, and as he watched Nona walk to her friends with the smile gone, he looked completely different.

Once extremely young for his age, Alex looked much older than seventeen. I didn't know if this was natural, but I couldn't help but feel a little uneasy. I missed the skinny awkward kid that had become my best friend over the last decade. His height and improved dexterity reminded me of how much had changed over the past two years, and I didn't like it. But what had I expected while I was gone? Time on the reservation to just stand still?

I tried to be happy for him, clearly Alex was enjoying himself. Getting picked in gym class was, not being made fun of for his size, and for once in his life being part of the winning team must have felt nice but still... I felt like I was loosing my best friend and all of the things that made him, him.

"What?" he asked looking down at me.

"Nothing." I said quickly trying to change the subject. "So. If he's not camping, where do you think Jason went?"

"No idea." He said shrugging and putting his arm around my shoulder as we continued to walk down the hall. "Why do you care?"

"I don't really." I said regretting this choice, he'd just been the first thing that popped into my mind. "I was just curious."

"Maybe he's sneaking off to see a girl." He said but he was laughing as if he seriously doubted it.

"What's so funny?" I asked frowning.

"Nothing it's just, well, girls used to ask him out all the time, but they gave up when they realized he was turning everyone down."

"Why?" I asked in surprise.

"No one really knows why." He said shrugging. "Jason's never really shown much interest in girls, not that they didn't try and he gave it a shot."

"What do you mean gave it a shot?"

"Well the year after you left he dated a lot of girls, like an insane amount but it never lasted long and he never seemed to care about them that much. After Chase and Rachel started dating, he just stopped."

"Why?"

"Everyone always used to joke that he was waiting for something, but I'm starting to think that's true."

"What would he be waiting for?"

"No clue. I guess the right girl? It must suck to be 'just dating' someone when all of your friends are practically engaged."

"That's no reason to be alone." I pointed out.

"Why are you telling me that?" he asked laughing. "If you care so much go tell him."

"I don't care." I said defensively. "But even if I did we don't know what he's up to remember?"

He grinned.

"You really want to know don't you?"

"No." I said blushing when he obviously wasn't convinced.

"Since when did you get so nosy?"

"It's just weird." I said defensively. "I don't really want to know."

"Then why are you asking?" he asked.

I didn't answer. The truth was I didn't know. But something had been different about him this morning, though I didn't know what. I shouldn't have cared. At least I didn't want to. But I found myself looking back at his friends. Something had changed. I just wasn't sure what.


	4. Chapter 4

Thank you for the review! It really helps motivate me to continue writing! Hope you like the latest chapters!

-secrethalfblood

Tpov

Over all, school wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be considering my experience with Jason the previous day.

"You're not going to sit with all your new friends Mr. Popularity?" I asked as we picked an empty table to sit at in the cafeteria.

All day people had been coming up and talking to Alex, and not just kids in our year. Apparently, Alex's new ability with sports had gained him some new notoriety. He was good at all of them, literally all of them, which was weird, but he loved it. He liked no longer being picked last in gym class and I decided to just roll with his new found skill set. Who knows, maybe he might be actually be able to convince people to put me on his team later when we had gym.

"You're my friend Tani." He said. "Even if you were doodling all though Language Arts when it was your day to take notes."

"Sorry." I muttered as he looked through my notebook where the last few pages were dotted with random words like Ethos and Pathos, but mainly covered in drawings.

"What's with the wolves?" he asked frowning and looking through the sketches.

"Nothing." I said shrugging.

"You're not still freaking out about what happened are you?" he asked frowning.

"No." I said honestly. "I just had a weird dream last night, you know?"

"Was Jason in it again?" he asked with mild interest.

"No." I said with much less honesty this time, and his raised an eyebrow to indicated his disbelief. "Why does it matter?"

"Because you need to let it go." He said with a sigh.

"Let it go?" I asked in shock. "Alex are you kidding me?"

"Look," he said. "I know some of the stuff he did to you was unforgivable. And I'm not saying you have to like him, but he's a different person now. He sticks up for kids that are getting bullied."

"Ironic." I muttered but he ignored me.

"He helps out around the community, he even takes care of everything around the house for his grandfather. Takes him to his Doctors appointments and everything." He shrugged and bit a French fry from his tray. "I know you're determined to hate him, but he really is a good guy now. And staying this angry at him just makes you feel worse and no one feel better."

"If he's such a good guy." I said raising an eyebrow. "How comes he's ditching class?"

"What?"

"Look." I said gesturing towards the popular table where all of Jason's friends, and their girlfriends were sitting along with Nona and a few other members of the A-crowd. "If wonder boy is so wonderful, where is he now?"

"Probably out messing around in the woods." Alex said shrugging.

"What makes you think that?" I asked frowning.

"He takes off a lot, they all do." He said gesturing towards the crew. I noticed they kept looking over at us, it was making me uncomfortable.

"Why?" I asked looking away from them and back at Alex.

"They go camping, hiking, at least that's what they say."

"You don't believe it?"

"I try to make it a point not to question what they do." He said frowning.

"Why?"

"Because I'm not sure I want to know." He said giving me a significant look. "I mean, everybody else might buy that camping crap but look at them." He said glancing over his shoulder. "They move like a well trained military unit. They're not the kind of guys who seem to take things lightly either, you know?"

"And the teachers just let them leave?" I asked finding this hard to believe.

"Ever since the council told them to stop pestering the Elders about it. They said and let the crew do what they needed to do. I told you." He said shrugging. "Jason and his friends run this place. At this point I really think Jason could commit murder and get away with it."

"Needed to do?" I said frowning. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

He seemed to fight with himself for a moment, then looked around to make sure no one was within ear shot of us before he leaned closer to me and lowered his voice.

"Ok, you know that senior girl Lidia Johnson?" he asked nodding towards a girl sitting a few tables away from us with her boyfriend and a few of her friends.

"Yeah."

"Last year she and her little sister were hiking not that far from here and she said she was getting a really weird vibe. Like they were being followed."

"I know that feeling." I muttered.

"Yeah, well." He said tersely. "They were being followed, some creepy couple they'd seen at the ranger station had followed them miles into the woods, and right as the couple caught up to them she said they started talking to each other, saying really freaky stuff right in front of them, like it didn't matter what they said cuz she and her sister weren't going to be around long enough to repeat it." He raised his eyebrow. "They tried to run for it, but," he frowned before he continued.

"What?" I asked feeling a strange cold feeling go through.

"Well she said the couple ended up trapping them. Which makes no sense unless the couple were like Olympic level track athletes, they should have never been able to get out in front of Lidia and her sister without them noticing, and just as things were about to get ugly Jason and his friends turned up."

"And the couple just left?" I asked in shock.

"Yeah." Alex said. "I mean, Jason threatened them, but he seriously scared them."

"Well, who wouldn't be scared of them?" I asked tersely.

"Yeah, well, I guess even creeps get freaked out when they find something other than just teenagers in the wood."

"Jason and his friends are teenagers."

"Yeah, but you can't tell me you honestly think they're normal teenagers." He said raising an eyebrow and we both we looked over at the popular table. "Not unless you think they're putting roids in the milk."

"You're one to talk." I said and he grinned.

"Anyways, after that, Jason and his friends were gone from school for about three days."

"You think they went after the creepy couple?"

"No one spotted them since." Alex said shrugging. "There's been a few other shady characters that's disappeared around them too. Dealers, vandals, any other people trying to cause trouble on the reservation."

"Think that's what Jason's doing now?" I asked and he gave me a suspicious look.

"Why do you care if Jason is at school? I thought you'd be happy he wasn't here."

"I don't care." I said wondering if that were true.

He gave me a shrewd look but decided not to pursue the subject and I was glad for the distraction when my phone buzzed. It was a text from my mom asking how my first week of school was going.

The bell ran and all the students started moving to the cafeteria doors.

We'd made it about half way to gym, talking about nothing in particular, when he slapped his hand to his forehead.

"Crap." He muttered.

"What?" I asked curiously.

"I left my gym clothes in my car this morning. I've got to go get them."

"Want me to go with you?"

"No." he said shaking his head. "Just tell Coach Taffot I'm coming."

"Alright." I said watching as he jogged down the hall and towards the main entrance.

'Jeez he got fast.' I thought in surprise. Two years ago, Alex would have been tripping over himself and running into people, but now he was light on his feet and dodging around the other students flooding in the opposite direction as if they were moving in slow motion. It was weird, but something about the way he moved looked kind of familiar…

Deciding to shrug it off, I turned and made my way to the gym, but just as I entered and was about to pass the bleachers I heard my name.

"If this is about Tani-"

"Of course it's about Tani!"

I froze and remained hidden behind the wall of folding seats. I wasn't completely sure, but the first voice had sounded like a boy in my year named Lewis, and the second voice was definitely Jason's best friend Chase.

"I'm with Lewis." Said a much calmer, younger sounding voice and I knew this must be the last boy in their little power squad, the sophomore Aster Brookes. "He shouldn't be alone out there. We're best as a team."

"Jason can take care of himself." Chase said shortly. "He's be doing this a lot longer than either of you. There's a reason why he's in charge and we need to be here. If something happens, he'd never forgive himself."

"But Alex is fine!" Lewis said incredulously. "Just look at him!"

"Yeah, I am." Chase said darkly. "That's why we're worried remember. He's grown nearly a foot in less than half a year."

"But-" Aster started.

"No more arguments." Chase said cutting the others off. "I'm in charge when Jason isn't around and I'm telling you this discussion is over. This is what we were told. Do you _really_ want to be the one who defies orders, if you even can?"

This shut them up. I could practically feel the tension between them, but eventually it was Aster who spoke.

"I've got to go." He said eventually. "I'm going to be late for chemistry."

"Stay at school." Chase warned.

"Yeah I know, I know." He said in a quelling tone, and I had to dive behind the bleachers to avoid being seen as he walked to the door of the gym.

He was a year younger than me, but already nearly a foot taller. He like Jason wore the expression of someone who was dealing with the problems of a much older person.

"Tani?"

I jumped and turned to see Alex on the other side of the bleachers, leaning slightly to see me better between the wall and the bleachers.

"What are you doing?" he asked with a slight laugh in his voice. He'd obviously come in from the other set of doors.

"Nothing." I said crossing the gym under the seats and coming out next to him.

"I know you don't like gym class," he said amused. "But it's been a while since you've tried to hide to avoid it."

"Why is Chase here?" I asked pretending to have just spotted him.

"There's not enough upper classmen taking gym to justify two classes." He said. "It's an elective after sophomore year, so they break it up into three classes. Freshman, Sophomore, and 'Advance Physical Education.'" He said with air quotes around the last three words.

"Advanced P.E.?" I asked skeptically then laughed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing." He said chuckling. "It's just the only name they could come up for a class where eighty percent of the curriculum is throwing dodge balls at each other."

"Fair enough." I said. "I'm going to go change."

"See you in a bit." He said and we walked to our respective locker rooms.

Lost in thought as I walked through the rows of lockers, I was so busy thinking about an idea for a sketch I wanted to start before homework tonight, I didn't notice the girls walking towards me until I just about smacked into them.

"Tani?"

"Huh? Oh." I said looking up and blinking in surprise.

The girls in front of me were two of Nona's popular friends. Rachel and Sarah. They were also the girlfriends of Chase and Lewis, Jason's friends.

"Hi." I said a little disconcerted.

"Hi." Rachel said brightly. "I didn't know you'd be in this class."

"Yeah." I said frowning. "I took this class to be with Alex."

"You liking school on the reservation so far?" Sarah asked an I was starting to feel distinctly uncomfortable. What did they want?

"It's fine." I said uncertainly.

"It must be really different here." Rachel said, clearly determined to be the driver of this conversation. "Nona told use you were at some fancy arts school while you were in California. She said you were pretty good."

"That depends on who you ask." I said unwilling to give her any conclusive response.

"Well if you ask me you're pretty good." She said producing a paper out of her binder and holding up a sketch I'd been working on in art earlier, it was the wolf I'd been working on. "It fell out of your bag when you left the cafeteria today. Pretty life like if you ask me."

"Thanks." I said taking the sketch, unsure I felt about her having the picture. It felt private and something was weird, why was she talking to me? Something felt wrong. Like she was trying to tell me something, but I just didn't understand.

"So, anything else you're working on?" she asked curiously.

"I'm sorry." I said finally getting to frustrated to hold on to the pretense of casual conversation. "I'm not trying to be rude, but is there a reason you're talking to me?"

"Do we need one?" she asked with a laugh.

"You never have before." I said frowning.

"We're just happy you're back." Sarah said.

"Why?" I asked confused.

"Well we're all a family right?" Rachel said. "We've got to stick together. Anyways, you'd better get changed. The bell is about to ring."

"Yeah." I said feeling totally out of place, but putting my sketch in my book bag and taking out my uniform nonetheless.

"See you around Tani," they said in unison.

"Bye." I said but I couldn't help notice as they started to walk away, and I started to change, Rachel glanced at the scars on my chest and my side and she stopped.

Unlike Sarah and the rest of the girls in the locker, who kept pretending to look around the room when they saw I'd noticed, she stared right at me.

"That must have hurt." She said frowning as I pulled down my shirt.

"Rachel…" Sarah said warningly but she ignored her friend, looking at me for a response.

Again, I had the strange feeling she was trying to tell me something with out really saying it, like she and I was supposed to have some sort of deeper understanding between us.

"I've had worse." I said shrugging.

Her eyes flicked to the scars on my arm that were exposed by my t shirt, but luckily the bell rang and everyone tore their eyes from Rachel and I, and made their way to the door. I put my stuff in my locker and closed it.

"I'll see you around." I said but she caught my shoulder.

"Go on." She said to Sarah who shot her another warning look. "I'll meet you outside."

"This isn't a good idea," Sarah said quietly but left us, so that Rachel and I were the only ones in the locker room.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"Something else happened out there, the night you were attacked. Didn't it?" She asked shrewdly. "Something you're not telling anyone."

"I don't know what you're talking about." I said trying to get away from her.

Of course she was being nice to me, she just wanted to hear my story first hand.

"Tani." She said urgently. "We believe you."

I hesitated and her eyes met mine, but I wasn't sure if I trusted them.

"I know you think everyone thinks you were in shock or whatever." She said quietly. "But I believe you. And if something else happened to you out there you need to tell someone."

"Why?" I asked skeptically.

"You know why." She said. "People could get hurt."

I stared at her for a second.

"And what you think your boyfriends can stop it?" I asked raising an eyebrow. "You don't know what you're talking about Rachel."

"Yes I do, Tani I told you I believe you."

"What's happening to Alex?" I asked. "If you and all your little friends are so 'clued in'." I said my eyes narrowing. "Why are they talking about him? Why are they worried?"

Her eyes went wider and I knew I'd hit something. Something I wasn't supposed to know about.

"N-nothing." She said quickly but it was far too late for her to recover. "They're not worried. You're being-"

"Crazy?" I asked raising my eyebrows.

"No that's not what I was going to say." She said her eyes going wide.

"I'll see you around." I said pulling myself out of her grip.

"Tani, wait." She said following me but I didn't stop walking. "Look if something happened to you out there, look people need to know. Admit it, you're not telling us something."

I stopped and looked over my shoulder at her. She really expected me to be honest with her right after she lied?

"I don't know what you're talking about." I said coolly.

"You and I both know that that wolf was real." She said in a last ditch attempt to get me to talk.

"Maybe." I said shrugging. "But you know it was dark. Maybe everyone else was right. It could have been a bear."

I pushed open the door and made my way into the gym.

"Alright ladies." Coach Taffot said clapping his hands together addressing the class as a whole and several of the girls rolled their eyes. He was a short man, with a beer belly, base ball cap and a good natured smile. "Who's up for a game of dodge ball?"

"Told you." Alex said with a grin.

There was a murmur of general agreement from the boys and athletic girls in the class, where as the rest of us just stayed silent. In the corner I could see Sarah and Rachel whispering to each other but I ignored them.

"Alright! Jason! Chase! You're team captains you know what to do."

"Jason's not here today coach." Alex said.

"He isn't?" he asked bemused scanning the crowd though I didn't know why he bothered. Jason wasn't the kind of person you missed.

"Ok Chase and Lewis." He said shrugging as the boys high fived then walked a few steps in front of us, then turned to face the crowd.

"Why do they get to be automatic captains?" I asked frowning. "That doesn't seem fair."

"You're joking right?" Alex asked me incredulously. "It's so they can't be on the same team. They're captain so they can't pick each other. It's the only way it can be fair"

"Good point." I said as Chase and Lewis played a game of rock paper scissors to see who got to pick first.

Chase won.

"Alex." Chase said and he grinned.

"See ya Tan." He said cheerfully then went to join his team.

"See you." I said glad he was happy, but feeling a strange sense of loss when seeing him high five Chase and talk game strategy as Lewis took his pick.

After a few rounds I resigned myself to be picked last once again, and while usually I didn't care, it was never exactly fun. And now I didn't have Alex to make it any easier.


	5. Chapter 5

Jpov

Staying away from Tani was one of the hardest things I'd ever had to do. Every second away from her was hard, every step farther from her actually physically hurt.

At first I thought I'd be ok if I stayed on the reservation and just avoided her, but I kept finding myself wandering into her path even if she didn't notice me.

I found excuses to pass by her house, I went to the store to pick up food for the week and of course she was there with her aunt and uncle. It got to the point where avoiding her on the reservation was impossible. I needed to disappear and over the next few days the only way I could manage to stay away from her was by forcing myself to stay deep in the woods.

I'd hoped as a wolf it might be easier, being human and phasing into a wolf while you were still conscious was different, but if anything it made it worse. Every feeling was ten times stronger with no human distractions, she was all I could think about, all I wanted to think about. I knew how toxic thinking about her was for me, but I didn't even want to stop. Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was hers.

It got a little easier when I caught the scent of a few blood suckers. I spent two days tracking them, and by telling myself that this time spent away from her was to help protect her it was more bearable to tolerate it. By Thursday however, I'd killed two blood suckers and lost the trail of the third who must have known I was coming and moved on. Having nothing to distract myself from how badly I wanted to see Tani, I was back on the reservation within an hour.

"I was starting to wonder when you'd be coming back." My grand father said as I walked through the back door and spotted him sitting at the kitchen table writing in a book of crosswords. "Put on a shirt boy, have a little humility for once."

I grinned.

"But the ladies love it gramps." I said and he scowled at his puzzle book obviously annoyed.

"I thought you were done chasing the ladies. It was nice not to have to learn a new girl's name every week these passed few months." He said irritably and my smile faded. "Don't tell me you've found another girl you're going to leave broken hearted. Is that where you've been all this time? Off in the woods camping with some girl?"

"No." I said calmly still trying not to think of Tani. "Blood suckers. Duty calls."

"Good." He said with an approving nod and I rolled my eyes. "It's good to see you you're doing something constructive with your time."

"How we doing on food?" I asked walking to the fruit bowl and grabbing an apple.

At this he chuckled.

"Fine. You haven't been here to eat it all."

"Well I'm going to stop by the store anyways." I said shrugging wondering if I'd run into her again.

'Don't think like that.' I mentally chided myself then continued.

"I've got to pick up your heart medication. Did you go to your Doctor's appointment?" I asked.

"Yes." He said patiently. "You left me about forty notes around the house and you programed my phone to remind me."

"Well it worked didn't it?" I asked with a grin and he grumbled something about the 'over protective youth'.

"Speaking of kids." He said as I grabbed a soda from the fridge and took a seat next to him at the table. "You might not have heard since you haven't been at school. That little Mason girl is back, your friend Tani. Remember her?"

My heart skipped a beat but I kept my face impassive.

"Yeah." I said casually as possible. "I heard."

"You should invite her over for dinner." He said pleasantly. "You know out of all your little girlfriends she was the only one I liked."

"She wasn't my girlfriend gramps." I said calmly. I hadn't told my grandfather about my imprinting on Tani, because I knew he would have told me I had to tell her and I had no intention of doing that ever.

"Oh what do you know." He said writing a word in the little squares. "You were a kid then and you're still a kid now. I don't care if you're eighteen. I'm your grandfather. I know what's good for you."

"We're not even friends anymore." I reminded him. "She doesn't want to be around me."

"You're such a drama queen." He said shaking his head. "How many times have you said that before?" he asked raising his eyebrow. "And every time she's forgiven you."

"Not this time." I said shaking my head. "I'm not inviting her over."

"You're making a mistake." He said in his 'I'm smarter than you' tone.

"Just leave this one alone."

"Fine." he said flatly. "But when that girl eventually gets a boyfriend and you're all miserable don't come complaining to me. All I'll do is say I told you so."

I wanted to respond to this, but just then the back door slid open and Chase walked in.

"I need to talk to you." He said then spotted my grandfather next to me in the kitchen. "Hey Papa Aterra."

"You know we have a door bell." My grandfather said gruffly.

He didn't mind that the house was consistently taken over by pack business, but he did find it annoying that they were constantly just walking through the back door with little to no warning. That being said, he didn't bother to lock it anymore.

"What's up?" I asked but Chase looked awkwardly at my grandfather who sighed.

"Alright. I'm leaving." He said putting his crosswords down and standing up. "But I don't understand why you feel the need to be so secretive, you young bucks really should look up to your elders. Not chase them out of the room whenever we're around." He continued to grumble as he walked down the hall. "I could help you know."

We watched him walk to his room, then Chase turned to me.

"Lewis and Aster are getting worried. They don't want you out there by yourself."

"Did you tell them tough luck?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yes." He said taking a seat. "But I don't think they wanted to listen to me."

"So? They never want to listen to me." I said with a shrug. "Sometimes even you don't."

"Yeah," he said anxiously. "But the point is we still do."

"Then what's the problem?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"I caught Aster sneaking out of chemistry." He said darkly. "After I told him to stay at the school."

"That shouldn't happen." I said frowning. "He's the newest in the pack."

"Hence why I'm here." He said. "Something's messing with the pack order. You're going to have to keep an eye on them 'cuz if they're not going to listen to me…"

"I get your point." I assured him. "Don't worry I'm back for now, but you're right. This is weird. I'll talk to Sam. Maybe he'll know what's going on."

"Alright." He said then hesitated.

"I don't want to talk about Tani." I said knowing what was on his mind. Though the pack telepathy was strongest when we were all in wolf form, we were more than capable of catching the drift of what each other were thinking, and seeing as I was the Alpha, I was the only one with the privilege of shutting my thoughts off from the others. Chase couldn't hide anything from me.

"Rachel think's she's hiding something about the night she was attacked?" I asked.

"Yeah, she says she doesn't think you were the one that attacked her."

"Of course it was me." I said anger and disgust rising so quickly within me, I had to take several deep breaths in order to calm myself.

"You don't know it was you." He pointed out. "You don't remember anything."

"I think it's pretty simple to piece together what happened, by the injuries alone, that doesn't even include her story."

"Yeah, about her story." I said frowning. "I've noticed something strange when she talks about it."

"She talks about it?" I asked quietly.

"Yeah, to Alex when she doesn't think any one can hear. But she doesn't know Lewis, Aster, and I can hear about five time better than the average person and one of us is almost within earshot."

"What does she say?"

"See that's the weird thing." He said frowning. "She'll admit she was attacked, and she'll say that the wolf caused her scars." My stomach clenched but I allowed him to continue. "But not once has she ever said the wolf attacked her. Lewis noticed it too. When ever she talks about being attacked, she says something like the 'thing that attacked me'."

"So?" I asked frowning.

"So." He said frowning. "Isn't it easier just to say wolf?"

"That's enough." I said shaking my head.

"But-" he started but I cut him off.

"No." I said flatly. "I hurt her and I'm not going to do it again, no matter how many crazy theories you and your girlfriend come up with. It doesn't change what I did. She's safer without me in her life."

I could tell he wanted to argue but I cut him off.

"There's no point arguing. I'm not changing my mind."

"Alright." he said a little resentfully."But I still think you should at least talk to her."

"And say what?" I asked bitterly. "Sorry that I terrorized you our entire childhood? That I ruined our friendship and was a complete jerk for years?"

"Well I wouldn't put it like that..." he muttered.

"I'm not putting it like anything." I said shaking my head. "I'm not going to say anything. She's better off without me."


	6. Chapter 6

Thanks for the reviews! they really mean a lot!

~secrethalfblood

Tpov

Jason came back to school on Friday. Even though I'd been dreaming about him for the passed week, I decided to follow his lead of getting through our awkward situation by just ignoring each other.

Having classes with him wasn't as bad as I thought, but I wasn't exactly happy I had three. Study hall, gym, and for some unknown reason, Jason had decided to take art. He didn't talk to me, and I didn't talk to him, but I had to admit being around him made me a little uncomfortable. I wanted to say it was because I was angry, but I wasn't, though that wasn't for lack of trying. He seemed to look at me a lot and I wasn't sure how to feel about it. Part of me wanted to talk to him. I wanted to know how his grandfather was, what he wanted to do after high school. I knew that for a while he'd wanted to go to school and play soccer if he could, but I wasn't sure if now that he'd been brain washed by the Elders if he even cared about stuff like that anymore.

More importantly, why did I care?

At least in Art and study hall we didn't have to talk, but I'd been dreading gym. What if we ended up on the same team? But as it turned out I didn't need to worry.

When we reached the gym we saw that all the lights were off and a TV had been rolled out in front of the bleachers. Coach Taffot claimed that he wasn't feeling well, so we were watching videos today during class.

"Ah the stoodges," Alex said fondly as the tv flickered on and the tape started to play. "Nothing says physical education like a pie in the face."

It didn't take long for me to get bored of the show. Not five minutes in while everyone was laughing I'd grabbed my sketch book.

Automatically I glanced at Jason, as I always did when I wanted to draw and he was near. It had been years since I'd tried to draw him, and I was surprised how easy it was, despite all the time that had passed, for me to remember the details I'd memorized of his face.

I'd put the pencil to paper without even really meaning to. I didn't remember deciding to draw him, it had been a sort of automatic process, like falling into a habit that you'd thought you'd broken. I just couldn't help myself. The next thing I knew I was sketching and as usual, once I started, I couldn't stop.

It should have been easier now. I'd had years more experience, but a familiar sense of frustration overwhelmed me as I glanced between the sketch and Jason who was talking to his friend Chase, apparently unaware of my gaze. Why could I never seem to get it right?

As I continued to draw, I thought about the difference between Jason now and his younger self which I'd tried so ardently to draw all those years ago. I was right, he did grow to be extremely handsome. His hair was shorter now, and his jaw was much more defined, but his eyes remained the same. As always they preoccupied my thoughts as I tried to get them right. No matter what I did they never looked the same on paper as when he was looking at me.

The bell rang and I jumped.

"Come back have you?" Alex asked amused and I looked up to him grinning down at me.

"Oh." I said a little lamely looking around.

Class had ended and people were filing out of the gym, Jason and his friends had stood.

"What are you drawing?" he asked with interest.

"Nothing." I said quickly, feeling myself blush and pushing my sketchbook into my bag before he could see it.

"Alright." He said giving me a strange look but he saw me glance at Jason and raised an eyebrow.

"So, you coming over to dinner tonight?" I asked hopefully as we walked out of the gym and put his arm around my shoulders.

"Probably not." He said a little guiltily.

"Alex," I groaned.

"I'm sorry Tani," he said shrugging. "I've got work tonight and it's too late to switch my shift."

"But it's family night." I said disappointedly. "You always come."

Back when I lived on the parents with my reservation, Nona's family and mine met at the end every week for dinner and family games. Over time, Alex had been around me so much that he'd gone from being invited every week to being expected to be there.

"I know." He said apologetically. "I'll try to get off next week but it's just not possible. I can still drive you home if you want?"

"Alright." I said still feeling let down as we stepped into the parking lot making our way towards his car. "but we're still on for this weekend right?"

It was supposed to be nice weather this weekend and we'd planned to go for a hike.

"Of course." He said grinning. "You gonna bring your sketch book?"

"That was the plan."

"Great. Then you can finish your drawing of Jason." He said smirking.

"I wasn't-" I started feeling my face burn but he cut me off.

"Don't bother Tani. You know I can tell when you're lying."

I looked at my feet, uncertain what to feel when we heard our names being called.

"Tani! Alex!"

We turned, his arm still around me, to see Nona jogging through the rain towards us.

"What's up?" I asked feeling a slight sense of satisfaction when I noticed Alex flush.

"We need people to help decorate the gym for the Fall dance." She said brightly. "You guys in?"

"Sure, we'll help." Alex automatically before I could even consider it.

I shot him a look but he was too busy looking at Nona who was beaming at him.

"Great!" she said happily. "Are you guys going to go together?"

"No." we said in unison and she looked surprised.

"Why not?" she said in what sounded like something close to disappointment. "You always go together."

"We've had enough awkward dances slow dancing to songs we don't listen to, in clothes we don't like, with someone we only see as a friend." I said amused and Alex nodded in agreement. "Besides I don't think I'm even going to go."

"But you have to go!" she said indignantly.

"I do not."

"But why wouldn't you?"

"Because it doesn't sound like fun." I said honestly. "I'd rather stay home."

"It won't be nearly as much fun without you." She said looking really disappointed this time. "Does that mean you're not going either?" she asked looking up at Alex.

He shrugged.

"This is unacceptable." She said stubbornly. "Alex, you have to come and you have to convince Tani to come too ok?"

"Alright." He said grinning.

"Do I get a say in this?" I asked annoyed.

"No." they said in unison and she smiled at Alex again.

"You're coming to dinner tonight right?" she asked curiously.

"No." I answered for him. "He's got work."

"But you always come." She said apparently let down. "Can't you get someone to cover your shift or something?"

I was about to say I'd already asked this but he quickly said.

"Yeah, I could probably manage that."

I turned to him, an eyebrow raised but Nona didn't notice."

"Great!" she said excitedly. "I'll see you two tonight. But I've got to go, we're about to go over the decorations budget for the dance."

"Alright, see you." I said while Alex tried to say goodbye but it came out in a noise I wasn't sure could be considered even remotely close to English.

She gave me a hug, Alex one last smile, then turned back to the school no doubt to meet with one of the many school committees she was a part of. I waited until she was out of ear shot until I hit Alex with my pencil case.

"You are so LAME!" I said in irritation.

"I know." He said guiltily.

"I asked you if you could come over tonight."

"Yeah I know."

"You said you couldn't go."

"I can't help it." he said defensively. "When she talks to me my brain just doesn't work right, and now I've gotta call out of work."

"You're gonna have to trade shifts with someone who works tomorrow aren't you?" I asked dejectedly and he nodded.

"Yeah, probably." He said awkwardly. "Sorry Tani."

"It's fine." I said shaking my head. Well, so much for our hike. "At least I'll see you tonight."

"Yeah." he said grinning. "I can kick your butt in Monopoly as usual."

"You should have asked her to the dance." I said as we continued towards his truck which was parked on the far side of the lot.

"What just to have her say no? No thanks." He said shaking his head. "Nona is way out of my league besides she thinks you and I are soul mates remember?"

"Yeah I guess." I said frowning. "You still should have asked her though."

"Let's just drop the subject." He muttered for once looking a little depressed.

"Alright."

He withdrew his arm from around me and crossed to the driver's side while I hopped into the passenger seat.

We didn't talk as he pulled out of the parking lot but as usual, Alex's cheerful mood returned when we hit the main road.

"You know you should go to the dance though." He said as I searched for a radio station.

"Why on earth would I go?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"It could be fun." He said shrugging.

"Doubtful." I muttered darkly. "Besides, who would I even go with?"

"You don't have to have a date."

"So I'll be a loser and go by myself?"

"That's what I'm planning to do." He said laughing and I couldn't help but smile as well. I didn't think it was possible for anyone to stay upset around him for long.

Jpov

Tani didn't know that I'd seen her staring at me in gym. As usual when she was drawing she seemed to fall out of the world. She wore the same look of concentration as she'd always had even when we were younger, her glasses pushed up to the top of her head and biting her lip in a frustrated manner like just like when we were little.

I saw her jump as the bell rang and knew she had absolutely no concept of how much time had passed.

Alex grinned down at her, apparently amused by this. He asked her what he was she was drawing but she refused to tell him. Eventually, they walked out together, his arm around her shoulders, but not before asking him if he was coming to dinner. How long ago had it been since I was the one she used to invite…

I watched them leave, for once Tani not the only thing that was on my mind.

Alex had been preoccupying my thoughts almost as much as she had lately. He was a problem I needed to solve.

"This kid is not normal." Lewis said grumpily. "Do you realize it's been three weeks since his fever started and he STILL hasn't phased. For three weeks we've had to follow Alex around. No hunting, no social lives. We haven't killed a single blood sucker since his temperature spiked, do you know how many times I've had to cancel on Sarah cuz we thought he was going to phase?"

"It's bound to happen soon." Chase said in a pacifying tone. We were walking on the shore of first beach after school let out and while it wasn't raining, there was a fine mist that hung in the air as we watched the waves roll in and sink into the shore.

"We said that half a year ago when he started shooting up like a weed. Are we sure he didn't just have an abnormally aggressive growth spurt?" Lewis asked a little half heartedly.

"He's got a fever of a hundred and five now." I said quietly remembering him telling Tani this over lunch, neither of them realizing we could hear.. "If he wasn't one of us he'd have been dead about two weeks ago."

"Then what is WRONG with him?" Lewis asked furiously kicking a piece of drift wood that went flying.

"He never gets mad." Aster said shrugging. "That's how we all phased. Well except Jason. His just came out of nowhere."

"What does Sam think?" Chase asked looking at me.

I'd gone to talk to Sam several times over the passed few weeks trying to figure out what we should do about Alex.

"He thinks we're right. Alex's personality is giving him an unprecedented control of his phasing, even when he doesn't know he's doing it. He's so non confrontational he just doesn't get angry. He also thinks it's what messing with the pack order. No one knows where he's going to end up so it's messing things up between us."

This was just another thing on the ever growing list of reasons why I was jealous of Alex. When he and Tani had first started hanging out, I couldn't imagine why she would want to be around someone like him rather than me. As he kid was the biggest nerd on the reservation, he'd been clumsier than a deer in an ice rink, and had about as much of a spine as a sea sponge, but I could see it now that I was the one who was wrong. He wasn't spineless, he was just relaxed, and happy. Something I'd been trying to be for so many years now and had never fully achieved. He was probably the nicest person anyone would ever meet, and was just genuinely a good person. He never got angry about anything, even with his abilities developing, and his control was just unheard of. Not only did he get to spend so much time with Tani, but he wasn't letting what he was take over his life like it had done with all of us, especially mine, and he didn't even realize he was doing it.

I guess it made sense she'd chosen him as her best friend. She'd seen how just how badly associating with someone as temperamental as me could go and found someone who was the exact opposite. I'd pushed her into his arms, and I wondered if he hadn't been so obsessed with her cousin if they would have ended up together.

"How can such a nice guy be this much of a problem?" Aster mused while Lewis looked at me.

"Jason I don't know how much more of this I can take." He said. "Is there any way we might be able to force him to phase?"

"Not that I know of." I said honestly.

"We could attack him." Chase suggested half heartedly. "That might shock him into it."

"No." I said. "If it doesn't work then we might accidentally kill him."

"Yeah, and it probably wouldn't work anyways." Lewis said tersely. "That boy's so polite you could poke him with a cattle prod and he'd apologize to you for getting in it's way."

"So what do you think we should do?" Chase said looking at me.

I knew what they wanted me to say, well Lewis and Chase anyways. They wanted to stop keeping such a careful eye on him. They'd gotten so comfortable with the idea that he wasn't going to phase, they'd convinced themselves it might just not happen because they wanted to spend more time with their girlfriends. But that just didn't happen. He had the blood, it ran in his family, and he was showing all the signs. He was going to phase.

"He's with her everyday." I said shaking my head. "I'm not leaving her alone with him."

"I'm more likely to phase around her than he is!" Lewis said angrily. "I'm telling you if I have to spend another weekend chaperoning that stupid little ray of sunshine I'm going to lose it. I know it's horrible, I know I'm a terrible person, but I might actually kill him."

"It is getting to be excessive." Chase agreed quietly.

"There! Even Chase thinks so!" exclaimed Lewis as if that settled things.

"Well it doesn't really matter what I think." Chase said shrugging. "In the end it's Jason's decision."

Lewis swore furiously, but I didn't speak. It was true. If I wanted to I could make them do this for me no questions, but I didn't like to force them to do anything. Especially if it involved staying away from the girls. I knew how hard it was to stay away from the girl you loved. I didn't want to put them through that more than I had to. So far they'd been going along with this voluntarily out of respect for me, but it looked as if that courtesy had reached it's limit.

"I don't think you guys are being very fair." Aster said and we each looked at him in surprise. He was the youngest and the lowest in the pack rankings. He rarely challenged anyone.

"Well," he muttered looking as if he regretted speaking. "It's just, what if it was one of our girlfriends? Would you want them on their own? The guy is basically a ticking time bomb. We've no idea when he's gonna blow and Jason spent a lot of his time keeping an eye on all of us so we didn't hurt people we cared about when we were about to phase. When Lewis phased he took care of it so you could spend time with Rachel," he said looking at Chase. "And when I phased he took care of it by himself so you both could spend time with the girls. Now someone he loves needs to be watched over, why shouldn't we do the same?"

"It's not the same." Lewis said darkly but he and Chase both looked a little conflicted.

"How is it not?" Aster asked frowning.

"Because Tani doesn't-" he started but cut himself off quickly. It didn't matter, we all knew what he was thinking. Tani didn't love me back. She didn't even want to be around me.

"Well, why don't I just keep an eye on him?" he suggested again looking slightly terrified to be the one calling the shots for once. "I mean, I don't mind taking over by myself for a while, Amanda will understand."

"He's going to be a lot bigger than you." Lewis said bluntly. Alex was already taller than Aster. And he was older.

"Yeah, but I've got experience on my side." He said. "Even if he's stronger than me I'll keep him contained until you guys get there. Besides, they don't really know me, so it will probably be less suspicious if I'm around them more anyways. They might not notice as much."

"That actually makes a lot of sense." Lewis agreed while turning to look at me.

"Are you sure?" Chase asked and Aster nodded. Chase also turned to face me. "What do you think?"

I looked at Aster for a moment. He was still relatively new to being a wolf, he'd only been phasing for about four months now, and to be honest he kind of caught us off guard. We were convinced Alex would have been next to join the pack, but obviously Alex was stalled. He'd never been left a handle a situation by himself, usually I would prefer to send Lewis or Chase, and I could tell by his expression he knew this.

"Alright." I said eventually and they looked shocked.

"Seriously?" Aster asked in surprise.

"Yep. I trust you." I said and he grinned.

"Alright wolf pup!" Lewis said grinning and ruffling Aster's hair. "Your first assignment. We're so proud."

"Shut up…" he muttered looking embarrassed.

"Well if that's all that needs to be done her," Lewis started looking at me. "Sarah's sister's visiting and she's making her famous lasagna for dinner…"

"You can go." I said rolling my eyes.

"Later." He said immediate phasing and bolting back to the reservation.

"I'm going to go too." Chase said. "Rachel's mom's birthday is tomorrow, she wanted me to help her set up for the party."

"See you." Aster and I said in unison and we watched as he too phased and took off.

"Do you ever think that will be you?" he asked and I looked down at him. "You know, running off to go see her?"

"I don't think so." I said knowing he meant Tani.

"I know I can't tell you want to do." He said frowning. "But I do think you should tell her."

"She's happier without me around." I said flatly.

"I just don't understand why you think that." He said frowning.

"It's pretty obvious why." I said. "All I've done is hurt her. I almost got her killed."

"Maybe that was true two years ago." He said shrugging. "But since the day she got back you've been torturing yourself because you want to do what's best for her." He shook his head. "I just don't know how someone that cares that much about her couldn't make her happy."


	7. Chapter 7

Tpov

Despite the fact that it meant he had to bail on our hiking trip, I was glad Alex had come over for family night. He and Nona had talked quite a lot while he was over, and by the time we'd played charades, Alex, Nona, and I against her parents, I'd started to feel a bit like a third wheel between them. Part of me wondered if she might be seeing him in a different light now that she wasn't several inches taller than him.

While I was happy that it seemed that Alex might have a shot with her, it did feel kind of weird. I'd always wanted them to get together, but never thought about how that would effect my relationship with him. Surely if they were going out I'd see him all the time, but how would I feel if they wanted alone time together? Surely if they were a couple they would. Then what would I do? The only two people I spent time with would be unavailable.

I decided not to think about this and go on the hike anyways. It was too nice of a day to be cooped up inside and so I hit the trails on my own, armed with a water bottle, some snacks, and my sketch book.

Sunlight poked through the leaves as I walked and I couldn't help but smile. It was a gorgeous day and before long I'd tied my flannel around my waist, enjoying what was probably the last of the warm weather before the winter.

I was surprised at how easily I remembered the area after all these years. My parents had always let me hike without them as long as Jason was with me when I was younger, and it was one of his favorite things to do. Even when the weather was dismal he loved being out in the woods and usually dragged me along. How many days had I spent slipping over wet rocks and splashing through the mud trying to keep up with him as he ambled through the trees, apparently not bothered by either.

I walked for about two hours before I hit a deer path that interested me. After looking over my shoulder, I stepped off the main trail, stepping around tree roots and trying not to trip over mossy rocks. After about twenty minutes I was glad I did. I hit a small stream that was tumbling down a rocky hillside causing many small waterfalls. I smiled and found a dry patch on which to sit, then shrugged my book bag off my shoulders and took out my sketch book.

I didn't know how long I sat there sketching, but long enough that I'd moved on from the water to other things around me. I doodled the shapes of leaves and flowers near by. The breeze picked up the pages on my sketchbook occasionally, but rather than be annoyed I found it pleasant. It went well with the sound of the moving water. It was relaxing. The sun had moved since I'd been here and I was sitting in a warm patch of light.

I felt my eyelids growing heavy.

I blinked and rubbed my eyes shaking my head. What should I draw next?

I went back through the pages of the sketchbook, intending to work on unfinished pieces. I hesitated about half way through the book, my eyes landing on the wolf. Goose bumps erupted over my arms. Even if it was just an image, I still remembered the night I'd seen it.

I rubbed my eyes again and continued adding detail to the picture trying to ignore the memories that were presenting themselves so persistently to my mind.

 _I tried to ignore the sharp noise that rattled my window every few seconds, knowing what it meant._

 _'Just ignore him.' I thought as another rock hit the pane. It was the middle of the night. What the hell did he want?_

 _I put my pillow over my head, pretending not to hear anything other than my fan for the next twenty minutes, but finally, after a loud 'CRACK', I got out of bed knowing that if I ignored him any longer he would find a rock big enough to smash the glass._

 _"Go away Jason." I said angrily staring down at the boy standing in my yard as I pushed my window open._

 _Though it was night, the moon was full and I had no problem seeing him._

 _"Just come down Tani." He said grinning at me in a way that made it seem like I'd already agreed._

 _"No."_

 _"Why not?" he asked disappointed._

 _"You know why." I said shaking my head. Did he think I'd forgotten everything he'd done to me? That I would forgive him that easily?_

 _"Yeah I know." He muttered looking down. "Look I just want to talk."_

 _"I don't want to talk to you." I said making to close the window but he looked up and his eyes met mine._

 _"Please Tan."_

 _I hesitated. He looked upset and I couldn't help but think he looked sincere. I felt a stab of sympathy go through me when I realized how sad he looked, which was almost immediately eclipsed by panic._

 _How did he always do this to me? One moment I hated him and then he looked at me like this, like he really was sorry, and I wanted to forgive him. It didn't matter that I knew he wasn't, or even if he was that it was ever going to change anything. All I knew was that when he looked at me like this he could always get me to do whatever he wanted. And this time wasn't any different._

 _"How am I supposed to even get down there?" I asked uncertainty and his smile returned. "My parents sleep right next to the stairs. They'd hear the front door."_

 _"Come out the window."_

 _"I'm on the second floor."_

 _"I'll catch you." He said shrugging._

 _"From the second floor?" I asked indignantly and he nodded as if this were a natural assumption. "Are you insane? That's not physically possible."_

 _"Don't you trust me Tan?"_

 _Again I hesitated. I should have said no. Knowing Jason he'd come here just to see if he could get me to jump and watch me fall, but he was still smiling at me in the way that made my chest tight and didn't allow me to think straight. It wasn't fair._

 _"You're going to catch me?" I asked tentatively._

 _He nodded._

 _"You promise?"_

 _His smile grew._

 _"Of course."_

 _"Alright." I said knowing this was stupid but changing into jeans and a hoodie anyways then sitting on the windowsill._

 _"If you don't catch me, I'm going to kill you."_

 _"If I don't catch you you're going to the hospital so I really doubt it." he said amused._

 _"You're not helping." I said sourly and he laughed._

 _"Take your time."_

 _I took several deep breaths as I looked at the ground. This suddenly felt much higher up than it had a minute ago..._

 _"You will tell me if you plan to move before sunrise, right?" He asked raising an eyebrow._

 _"Shut up." I said and again he laughed._

 _I close my eyes and allowed gravity to pull me off the sill. My heart shot into my throat as I fell through the cold night air and just as I was sure Jason had lied and I was going to hit the ground, a pair of strong arms grabbed me._

 _"Not so bad was it?" Jason asked amused and I uncurled from the protective ball I'd unknowingly formed._

 _"You shouldn't have been able to do that." I said looking up at him._

 _Jason had always been tall and strong for his age, but was still only fifteen and even with the crazy growth spurt he'd been going through recently, he'd made it look easy._

 _He smirked._

 _"Then why'd you jump?"._

 _Even through my hoodie, I could feel the heat radiating off of him._

 _"You're burning up." I said trying to ignore the heat in my cheeks as he set me down._

 _"That's what my grandfather keep saying but I feel fine." He said shrugging. "C'mon."_

 _"I thought you wanted to talk."_

 _"You can't walk and talk at the same time?" he asked raising an eyebrow and looking down at me._

 _"Where are we going?" I asked jogging to catch up with him._

 _He smiled when I said the word 'we'._

 _"The trails." He said as if this were obvious._

 _"But it's the middle of the night."_

 _"So?"_

 _"So isn't that dangerous? No one knows where we are. What if we get lost?"_

 _"Please Tan," he said looking far from concerned. "You're with me. Do you really think that's going happen?"_

 _He had a point. No one knew the woods better then Jason. He was probably more comfortable on the trails then he was on the roads on the reservation. I glanced over my shoulder at my shrinking house as we made our way towards the woods to the trail head, Jason with his hands in his pockets looking quite at his ease while I still felt uncertain._

 _Trying to ignore the several voices in the back of my mind screaming at me that this was a mistake, I followed him into the trees._

 _For someone who wanted to talk, Jason didn't seem to have much interest in saying anything. We walked for a solid twenty minutes without speaking and after another quarter of an hour I couldn't take it anymore._

 _"Jason, why did you ask me to come with you?"_

 _"I told you, to talk."_

 _"Then say something."_

 _"What do you want to talk about?"_

 _"You asked me out here. You tell me."_

 _"You excited to start high school?"_

 _I stared at him indignantly for a second but he looked down at me, with apparent, genuine interest. After all this time,_ this _what what he wanted to talk about?_

 _"Is anyone?" I asked scowling and he let out a slight laugh._

 _"It's not that bad."_

 _"Yeah, well it wouldn't be for you." I said looking up at him a little uncomfortably. He was so tall now. "No one would dare mess with you."_

 _"Well if anyone messes with you let me know, I'll deal with them."_

 _"What if it's you?" I asked and his smile faded._

 _"That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about." He said not looking at me. "Look I know I haven't been a great person to you for a while now and now that we're going to school together again soon, I wanted..."_

 _But he cut himself off, apparently uncomfortable, as if he wasn't' sure what he should say next._

 _"You wanted..." I prompted and he took a deep breath before continuing._

 _"I just, I was hoping that-"_

 _But he cut himself off and I noticed he looked a bit dizzy._

 _"Hoping what?" I asked uncertainly but he shook his head and put a hand on a near by tree, leaning against it._

 _"Jason?" I asked feeling alarmed now. "Are you ok?"_

 _"Fine." He muttered, but he didn't look it. His voice was tight, and he sounded like he was in pain._

 _He bent over, still leaning on the tree and clutched his stomach._

 _"Jason…?" I asked hesitantly, trying to approach him but he shook his head again and walked several paces away from me._

 _"I'm fine." He repeated standing up, but his eyes were closed and the hand that was running through his hair was shaking, as was the rest of his body._

 _"You look like you're about be sick."_

 _"I-" he started but he bent over again and suddenly ran off the path into a clump of bushes and I heard a retching noise._

 _"Jason!" I shouted as I heard a thud and I knew he'd collapsed._

 _I tried to run after him, but got caught on the branches that grew much closer together now that I was not on the trail. I fought my way through briars and brambles in the direction I'd thought he'd gone, but the farther I went the more uncertain I became. I should have run into him by now, he couldn't have gotten that far…_

 _I looked over my shoulder, wondering if I should go back to the trail and get help from someone on the reservation but a shock of fear went through me as I looked around and realized I wasn't sure where the trail was. It was darker in this unkempt area off the beaten path. Everything looked the same to me._

 _"Jason?" I called nervously, a sense of unease clawing through me but there was no response._

 _I started to backtrack, walking in the direction of what I hoped was the trail and listening for any sound that might lead me to him but I heard nothing._

 _"Jason!" I shouted a little angrily this time. "If this is some sort of joke it isn't funny!"_

 _I heard a twig snap behind me and I felt relief flood through me._

 _"I thought you'd left me." I said gratefully but froze when my eyes landed on the figure behind me. It wasn't Jason._

 _He was tall and ghostly pale, his skin glowing in the moonlight. His hair was black and he was unnaturally attractive, but not in the way Jason was. Jason's features were strong and comforting but this man… everything about him was cool and calculated. His eyes were black and glittered as they stared hungrily at me._

 _"He did." The man said with a wicked smile and I felt my stomach contract with fear. "How unfortunate for you."_

 _I didn't bother to ask what he meant by this. I knew._

 _I turned and started to run but faster than my eyes could follow he'd moved and was in front of me._

 _I cried out in pain and shock as he grabbed my wrists and smirked down at me._

 _"Did you really think I was going to let you get away?" he asked sounding cruelly amused._

 _I was thrown off my feet and into a boulder. My head smacked against it and I felt dizzy, I collapsed unable to breathe._

 _I tried to scream as he approached, laughing, but nothing came out. Even if it had, there was no one around to hear it._

 _"This really wasn't much of a challenge." He said as he knelt next to me. He grabbed my hoodie and set me in a sitting position, my head was swimming. "I thought the boy might have at least made it interesting."_

 _"Jason." I mumbled hardly aware of what was going on._

 _"Oh sweetie," he said grinning, showing unnaturally white teeth. "He cant help you now."_

 _My vision was going fuzzy and darkness was eating at the corners of my eyes._

 _"No one can."_

A crack of thunder echoed through the trees, my eyes flew open and I sat up breathing quickly. I looked around the dark woods horrified, half convinced I was still in the dream when I heard the sound of the stream and I realized I was alone.

I took several shuddering breaths continuing to search my surroundings for any sign of movement, any suggestion that the man was here. After several minutes had passed however, I was able to calm myself down. I must have fallen asleep.

I glanced up at the and realized several hours had passed and the clouds that covered La Push had returned and as usual, were threatening rain.

I needed to get home. I hadn't planned for bad weather.

I closed my sketch book, packed it in my bag, then got to my feet just as fat drops started falling to the ground.

"Oh come on." I said realizing I had no idea where the deer path I'd followed had gotten to. It started to rain heavier and as I looked up at the clouds I was startled to realize that the light of the sky was rapidly fading. It must have been evening. I was running out of daylight.

Slipping and sliding over the rocks, I finally managed to find the path and stepped under the cover of the densely packed trees that the path wound around. While the journey to the falls hadn't taken me long originally, navigating the terrain was harder in the dark and several times I found I'd stumbled off the path only to realize it when I hit a clump of branches or a thorn bush.

"Ow." I muttered pulling a few of the barbs out of my jeans when I heard something behind me snap and I froze.

Heart beating rapidly, I turned listening for any other noise, trying to ignore the fear that was pouring into my veins.

"Is someone there?" I asked, glancing between the trees not that it did me much good. The forest was so dense here someone easily could have hidden behind them.

Nothing answered.

I looked around again, trying to stall the panic that was threatening to overwhelm me as I quickly started making my way back to the main trail.

'It was probably nothing.' I assured myself, trying to listen through the sound of the rain hitting the leaves. 'It could have just been a branch falling, or some animal walking by. You're freaking out over something that happened years ago… that wouldn't happen again and even if it did, well, you'll be alright.'

A memory drifted towards the surface of my mind. A wolf, bigger than it should have been possible, with intense dark eyes.

Another snapping sound, this was definitely closer and louder, whatever had broken had not been done by an animal, and was not a twig.

I walked faster, heart pounding in my ears.

'You're fine.' I thought. 'Nothing's going to happen. Everything's going to be alright.'

Another crack, even closer. I started to run. In my panic I'd stopped paying attention to where I was going. I'd stepped off the deer path again and was now totally lost.

I looked around frantically, I was alone, lost and scared. No one knew where I was, I had no idea where I was supposed to be heading the last time this had happened to me…

I tripped over a tree root and let out a shout as I plummeted to the ground. I threw my arms out to brace myself for fall, but it didn't come. Something big and strong caught me and my panic went into overdrive. It had found me. It came back.

I screamed and tried desperately to free myself from a grip that was strong as iron, but was surprisingly gentle at the same time.

"Tani, calm down! It's me." someone shouted and I froze. I knew that voice.

"Jason?" I asked in utter shock looking up, but even in the dim light I knew it had to be him. Only he was _that_ tall.

"I heard you shout," he said sounding worried. "Are you alright?"

As usual when he wasn't in school, he was shirtless wearing a pair of cut off sweatpants.

"Yeah." I said quickly stepping out of his grip and looking away.

"You look terrified." he said and I could still hear the intense concern in his voice. As if he really was worried about me.

"I thought I heard someone." I muttered feeling embarrassed. I was sixteen, I shouldn't be getting spooked in the woods.

"You heard me." He said gesturing to his left where I saw about twenty feet away he's started a fire and a sleeping bag was set up as well as a pile of broken branches he must have been breaking for firewood. He didn't have a tent, but I knew Jason didn't like sleeping in one if he could avoid it. Instead he'd propped a tarp over a make shift lean too he'd built with branches and fallen logs that protected his fire and is gear from the rain that had made it through the leaves. "What are you doing out here on your own?"

"Alex and I were going hiking but he had to work. What are you doing?"

"I spend most of my time in the woods these days." He said shrugging, his eyes had been on me up until this point, but as he said this he looked away. While his expression was casual, but there was a certain dejection behind his tone. It didn't make sense. Jason had always loved camping. Even as kids he'd always talked about how he couldn't wait until he was old enough to go on his own. I figured he'd be happy here in his element.

"What about your friends?" I asked uncertainly.

"They come sometimes." He said with another shrug. "But for the most part they don't like it unless the girls come."

"Their girlfriends?"

"Yeah." He said shortly and I could tell he wasn't a fan of this.

"You don't like them?"

"No they're fine." He said shaking his head and sounding even more depressed. "It's just being around them and my friends at times can be a little much."

"I guess it isn't much fun being the third wheel."

"Yeah." He said tersely.

"Well, why don't you invite a girl to come with you?" I asked I knew if he asked any girl in school they'd agree to go with him. Well, except maybe me or Nona.

He didn't answer.

I hesitated. Though it was rare in the woods, I recognized the refusal to make eye contact, the short responses or refusal to do so. Even by his body language I could tell that right now Jason was moody. He went back to breaking branches that looked to thick to be snapping as easily as he was.

"I'm a little surprised to see you this far off the main trail." He said eventually. "If you're just out for a day hike."

"Yeah about that." I muttered a little awkwardly. "Where is it?"

He paused, about to snap another log and turned to look at me as if he wasn't sure he'd heard correctly.

"Don't tell me you're lost Tani." He said in disbelief.

I didn't answer but I didn't have to.

"Of course you are." He said shaking his head looking as if he couldn't decide if he was amused or annoyed. He gave me a shrewd look. "You have no idea where you are, do you?"

I shook my head.

"Come on." He said with a sigh, tossing his log back on the pile. "I'll take you back."

"You don't have to." I insisted. "Just point me in the right direction and-"

"I'm not leaving you on your own." he said shaking his head. "The last thing I need is for you to get lost wandering around the woods again, and with your track record you will. I'm coming with you."

"Thanks." I said embarrassed.

He didn't answer, just dosed the fire with a bucket of water next to it and gestured for me to follow him.

"What about your stuff?" I asked uncertainly.

"I know where it is." He said comfortably apparently not concerned about having to find it again and I looked at him.

How much time did he spend here?

I shivered as a cool breeze ran through the leaves, showering his makeshift campsite with droplets of water. He noticed.

"Here," he said bending down and grabbing something from under the tarp, then tossing me his rain jacket.

"But this is yours." I started and he shrugged.

"I don't need it, and besides, if you don't get something to keep the rain off you you'll freeze."

I wanted to argue, but another breeze rippled through the woods, this one stronger and I shivered again.

"Alright." I said. It was so big it easily covered my book bag and still went passed my hands, I felt like a kid wearing their father's suit jacket but he was right. I was much warmer than I was a few seconds ago.

"Ready?" he asked and I nodded.

It was really starting to get dark now and as we moved from the fire light, I was starting to realize just how little I could see. Jason didn't seem bothered by this, he looked as he always did in nature, totally at home. While I was tripping over tree roots and stumbling over rocks, he was waiting patiently for me to catch up to him, occasionally catching me before I fell.

He didn't complain, but when I almost slid down a muddy hill into a pile of jagged rocks, he'd apparently had enough.

"Alright we're done with this." He said righting me for what must have been the twelfth time tonight. "I'm just going to carry you."

"I'm fine." I protested indignantly.

"Tani, if we keep going at this rate you're not going to get home until next Wednesday."

"It's not my fault it's dark." I said defensively.

"I'm not saying it is. But we're several miles out and you're too slow."

"Wouldn't carrying me slow you down?"

"You weigh less than my winter gear."

"But-"

"Do you want to get home tonight?" he asked cutting me off.

"Yes."

"Then you're going to have to let me carry you."

"Fine." I said darkly but allowing him to carry me on his back.

"Jeez you're tiny." He said his arms sliding under my knees.

I ignored this and locked my arms above his shoulders as he started walking. He was right, now that he wasn't waiting for me we were making far better time.

"Why the hell aren't you tripping over stuff?" I asked trying not to be concerned how warm his skin was. I had to admit it was a little nice. Any traces of cold had been burned away by it.

"I've always had better night vision than you."

"Yeah, but how can you see anything?" I asked looking up all I could see were the occasional branches against the clouds above us, and even then it was difficult. "It's legitimately a cloudy night."

"I guess I'm just special."

I continued to stare around trying to see anything but gave up after only a few seconds. I rested my chin on his shoulder.

"So how's your grandfather?" I asked unable to think of anything else to talk to him about.

"Same as usual." He said and I felt him shrug, the muscles in his shoulder hardly seeming to notice my weight. "Old, stubborn, and thinks he knows how to run my life better than I do. Still irritated by the youths."

"I never got the impression young people irritated him."

"Yeah, well he always liked you." He said and I could tell he was grinning. "Every time I introduced him to a girl I was dating he'd make a point to ask me about you in front of her."

"Why?" I asked shocked.

"He thought you were good for me." He said a little awkwardly. "In his words I acted less like 'An arrogant little hellion' when you were around."

I couldn't help myself, I grinned.

"He was right of course." He said with a sigh. "As he always is. Even my parents noticed it."

"What do you mean?"

"I was always much better behaved when you were around as a kid."

"Why?" I asked confused.

"Because if I ever annoyed you you'd just ignore me and start drawing. Other kids, I'm not sure why but they always did whatever I wanted to get me to like them, but not you. I hated it when you ignored me so I tried to avoid it as much as possible. I acted like much less of an idiot around you."

"You once put a kid in head lock for stealing my cookie at lunch when you were seven." I said frowning. "That was you acting like less of an idiot?"

"Yeah, you can imagine how bad it was when you weren't around." He muttered shortly.

I didn't know what to do with this information but he didn't seem to require an answer. He continued to walk and silence stretched between us, rain drops occasionally dropping onto my head but not really bothering me considering how arm he was. I knew I shouldn't have been, but I was extremely comfortable. He smelled like smoke from his fire and the laundry soap his parents had always used. It was so familiar to me I closed my eyes as memories presented themselves to me, all attached to the scent. Camping with our parents, all those days we'd gone walking together in the woods, walking home together after school, laughing and talking about our days when we'd been apart. It was amazing really, how terrified I'd been earlier but now that I was with Jason I felt untouchable. Not even thinking about the dream scared me.

Everything about him felt familiar, not just familiar, but right. The way his heart beat and his body moved as he continued to walk and I felt like a kid again, when being around Jason was the safest place in the world, where I was supposed to be.

I woke up to the sound of a door opening and light falling on my face as a panicked voice said.

"Oh thank goodness you found her Jason."

I blinked, confused only to see my aunt and uncle standing in their door, looking worried.

"Is she alright?"

"Yeah, just sleeping."

"Not anymore." I said and the all looked at me, Jason turning his head.

He set me down and my aunt quickly shuffled me into the house while my uncle addressed Jason.

"Do you want to come inside?"

"No I'm fine." He said and I tried to look over my shoulder at him but my aunt was inspecting me for damage.

"Are you sure you're alright?" she asked when she was satisfied I'd come to no physical harm. She looked very much like Nona with long dark hair, warm brown eyes, and a worried expression that Nona often gave me when I'd neglected to take care of myself.

"Yeah." I said trying to look over my shoulder again but the front door was closed.

"What happened?" she asked but before I could answer I was tackled into a hug.

"Where the hell have you been?" Nona asked her grip so tight it felt as if she were trying to squeeze the life out of me.

"What happened to you?" Another familiar voice asked and I looked up from Nona's strangle hold to see Alex taking in my torn and dirty jeans.

"I'm going to go head off the search party." My uncle said grabbing his coat from the peg by the door and taking his keys from the bowl. "You should call Sam. He'll want to know Jason found her."

"You're right." My aunt agreed and as my uncle stepped out the front door she made her way towards the kitchen where the home phone was located.

"Why'd they make a search party?" I asked confused.

"Are you kidding me?" Nona asked her eyes wide.

"What?"

"It's for you! We've been worried sick!" Nona said indignantly. "You take off on your own, don't bring your cell phone, and stay out hours later than you should, then turn up with Jason of all people? What the hell?"

"I got lost." I said honestly.

"And you just happened to blunder into Jason?" Alex asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah actually." I said and he gave me a suspicious look, but then shrugged. "What are you doing here?"

"He got off his shift early and came over to see you." Nona answered for him.

"So what have you two been up to then?" I asked and I was surprised to see Nona look a little flustered.

"Just talking." She said flushing. "I mean, we've been worried about you. Which reminds me." She continued suddenly looking irritated then smacking me in the back of the head.

"What was that for?" I asked indignantly.

"For getting lose in the woods AGAIN." She said furiously. "Do you remember what happened last time? You're lucky Jason found you!"

I didn't answer this, still feeling unaccountably awkward but I wasn't sure why.

"Well, I'm glad you're ok." She said eventually. "Even if you are a dumb ass."

She shook her head.

"I'm too stressed, I'm going to go take a shower. Make sure she doesn't wander off again ok?" she asked looking up at Alex who grinned.

"Alright."

"I'm not five." I said irritated but they both ignored me as Nona made her way up stairs still muttering angrily to herself.

"You look like crap." Alex observed looking me up and down as I fell into a chair in the living room and he followed me in, sitting on the couch.

"How kind of you to notice." I muttered.

"So Jason was the one to find you." He said quietly and I suddenly realized why I felt so awkward. Alex had been there through all of the rough bits with Jason. He'd always been the one to comfort me every time things between Jason and I had gotten bad, and he was there too when I'd screwed up and forgiven him. It was humiliating and though Alex never made fun of me or even feel bad about it, it didn't stop the fact that he probably thought I was a bit of an idiot when it came to Jason. Especially when I'd been so close to falling back into the cycle tonight.

"Yeah." I said not meeting his eyes. I hadn't realize just how easily I'd fallen back into that trap until I was away from Jason and got my head on straight again. How had I allowed myself to start thinking that way about him again? It didn't make any sense, I didn't want anything to do with him and yet…

I felt my cheeks burn and my heart skip a beat when I'd remembered how it had felt with his arms round me. What was wrong with me?

"You really do seem stuck with him don't you?" Alex asked mildly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"Nothing." He said shaking his head. "It's just…I mean, you could have run into anyone out there or no one, but, I'm just not surprised it was him. You know? If I had to guess who it would be to find you, it would be him."

"I don't get what you're trying to say." I said looking away from him.

"Don't play dumb Tani." He said shaking his head. "Even when you wanted to hate him you guys always had some sort of freakish connection. Why do you think you always forgive him?"

"We were best friends." I said softly.

"You and I are best friends." He said sagely. "And as close as we are, we both know you and he were on a very different level."

I shook my head.

"I don't want to think about anything else tonight, I'm going to bed."

"Alright." He said shrugging. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. I'll tell Nona where you've gone."

"Thanks." I said and walked back to my room. "I'll see you later."

"See you."

As much as I didn't want to think about Jason, my brain didn't seem to want to get with the program. He monopolized my thoughts as I stepped into my room and shut the door. I glanced out the window and half expected him to be there. He wasn't of course, whatever had happened between us out in the woods had vanished now that we were back on the reservation and in the real world, but I continued to glance occasionally at the window as I got ready for bed. Did I want him to be?

It was only when I took it off that I realized I was still wearing Jason's jacket. I put it on my desk chair thinking I'd be able to give it back at school and changed into pajamas, but when I turned out the lights and crawled under my blankets I found I couldn't sleep. I didn't know why, my body felt exhausted but my brain didn't want to shut off. I tossed and turned for an hour listening to the rain until I couldn't take anymore. I sat up and turned on my light determined to either read or draw until I fell asleep but when I sat at my desk and grabbed a pencil I didn't feel like doing either.

I really was exhausted. All I wanted to do was sleep but I couldn't seem to do that.

I caught the smell of smoke and looked over my shoulder at Jason's jacket still resting on the back of the chair.

"This is stupid." I muttered to myself but stood, put on the jacket and got back into bed. Almost immediately as the light switched off I felt my body getting heavy. I pulled it tighter around me while pulling over the hood and caught a trace of a scent that I knew was his shampoo. I couldn't believe after all this time he still used the same one.

Again I was surrounded by that sense of warmth and safety only being around Jason had ever made me feel. It was a feeling I trusted unconditionally, no matter what disaster it might have led me to over the years. I knew I shouldn't have, but I allowed my thoughts to drift to him telling myself that thinking about him for one night couldn't hurt. I didn't want to think about all these confusing emotions, they could wait until tomorrow, until then I could just pretend like nothing had happened between us and that Jason was still the most certain part of my life. Was that so bad?

I knew it was but I ignored it, too afraid to lose this feeling now that I'd gotten it back after so many years. I would pay for it tomorrow, I knew I was going to regret this, but that was later. I could pretend for now.


	8. Chapter 8

Jpov

Life lately seemed to be passing by in a haze. I couldn't quite explain what I was going through, but adjusting to life after having imprinted was weird. It wasn't bad, just different. Well, not being around Tani sucked. Being near her, but not able to talk to her, or even look at her made me feel like I couldn't breathe, but otherwise things were pretty normal with some major exceptions.

Walking in the halls, I just didn't see girls anymore. I knew they were there, and if I was talking to one, I knew who they were, but at the same time, it was like I couldn't see their faces. I didn't have trouble sleeping, but now I was starting to dream. I never used to dream, but it was like I couldn't stop of thinking of her, not even in my sleep. All my dreams were about Tani, and while I used to think of missions to go find vampires, now, I really didn't care all that much. I was too busy thinking about her. As long as they stayed away from the reservation I didn't really care what they did.

Though it stormed all week, I hardly seemed to notice the weather. Whenever she was around, I thought it was a perfect day.

But inability to process the weather didn't stop it from happening. By the next Thursday, while the storm had blown over, the flooding was so bad school had to be cancelled, and for the first time I could remember, I slept in.

Usually I didn't like it. I'd generally considered sleeping in as a waste of time, but I'd been having a good dream and I guess I wanted it to last. Tani and I had walked to the stream not too far from our street when we were kids and used to live next to each other. It was just like years ago, she brought her sketch pad, I brought a fishing pole, and we just sat there talking to each other about everything and nothing. She was the only person I'd ever been able to do that with. Like always I'd be pretending to fish, but actually spent most of my time watching her. I'd always loved watching her when she painted or drew, she got this adorable look of concentration and I could tell she just fell away from the world for a while. I'd always wished I had that ability, to get completely lost in something like she did. Lately it seemed like I was going to suffocate from everything going on around me, but not when I was around her. Being around her was nice. It made being in this crazy world of bloodsucking monsters and strange shape shifting powers less horrifying. Maybe that was why we imprinted. It made this insanity worth it.

I laid in bed for about an hour trying to fall back asleep and continue the dream, but it didn't work so eventually I got up and walked to the kitchen, yawning and rubbing my eyes.

"You're alive." My grand father said amused as I poured a mug of coffee. "I was about to go in and make sure you were still breathing, and put that away," he said irritably. "You're still a child, you don't need coffee."

I ignored him and added sugar as he muttered something about ridiculousness and teenager's addiction to caffeine.

"You've got a message by the way." He said as I poured myself a bowl of cereal. "The foundation of the community center was damaged in the flood as well as the porch. They were wondering if you and your friends would be a lending hand." He said ripping off a paper from the pad next to the phone. "It would go a lot faster with you superhumans."

"Alright, I'll ask them." Them I said between yawns and grabbing my phone.

"Can you just ask them in your head?" he asked.

"Yes." I said continuing to type out the message. "But believe it or not gramps. They don't exactly love me intruding into their minds."

"That's their problem." He said shrugging.

"I think I'm just going to send a text." I said hitting the send button.

Almost immediately they responded.

"See." I said holding up the phone for him to see. "It's just as fast."

"Yeah, yeah." He muttered as I scanned their responses. "You kids are so clever with your technology. What'd they say?"

"Chase and Aster were decent enough to come with with plausible excuses." I said with a grin. "Lewis says 'Screw you Jason, no.'"

He chuckled.

"Sounds like he just woke up too. Looks like you're on your own then."

"Looks like it." I agreed taking another bite of cereal. "You going to come?"

"I'm always willing to supervise." He said smiling slightly. "But I think I'll leave the heavy lifting to you."

"Thanks gramps." I said amused.

"Don't give me flak. You could lift three times as much as half of the guys down there and not break a sweat. You might as well put that ability to good use."

So an hour later we drove down the community center where repairs were already underway.

"Just you today Jason?" Sam asked while shaking my grandfather's hand.

"Yep."

"Where's the rest of the boys?" he asked.

"Either sleeping or with their girlfriends." I said. "Unless Chase really expects me to believe his little sister got chickenpox twice since last year and Aster really expects me to believe he's meeting his history teacher for quiz review when the school is closed."

"What did Lewis say?" he asked grinning.

"He didn't bother to make up an excuse, he just said no."

"Yeah that sounds like him." He laughed. "Well I guess you've made them help more than enough times and this isn't critical damage. Smart move Mr. Alpha. A good leader always picks his battles. That's one lesson I learned the hard way."

From the tone in his voice, I could tell he was thinking of the fracturing of his own pack when Jacob Black left to protect his friend Bella and her family that Sam had condemned. While it had worked out in the end, I knew he regretted it to this very day. I could only imagine how hard it must have been. A pack was like family, if not closer. I considered Chase, Lewis, and Aster to be my brothers. I didn't know how I would handle one of them running away.

"So what have you got for me?" I asked looking around. Sam was usually in charge of repairs around the reservation, like me he'd been helping wherever needed since he became leader of his own pack which gave him years of experience.

"I think I'm going to have you work on the porch for now." He said glancing at the plans. "If only to keep an eye on things. Half of those guys went to the bar for Frank's fortieth birthday last night, and while I appreciate their help, I think they might be a little more careless than usual."

"Hung over?" I asked with a grin.

"Yeah." He said amused. "Not that you would know what that was like."

"He'd better not." My grandfather chimed in. "I keep telling him just because he's eighteen doesn't make him a man. All these teenagers in a hurry to grow up these days…"

"I'm going to start working." I said awkwardly as they discussed my 'maturity' over the passed few years.

"Hey Jason!" someone called as I reached the stack of two by fours they were using to rebuild the community center's porch and several people looked up and greeted me as well.

"Happy belated." I said waving to Frank who waved, but did look a bit sick.

Grinning, I grabbed a few of the two by fours and started carrying them to the table saw so they could be cut.

I was on my fourth trip to the saw when I heard my name being called.

"Yo Jason!"

I looked up to see the foundation workers were taking a lunch break and a young man in his early twenties jogging towards me with a broad grin on his face.

"Hey Nick."

Nick was a kid I grew up with, he used to invite me to play soccer with the kids in his year when we were younger.

"How you been man?" he asked but as he stepped closer his eyes went wide. "I see you're still massive as hell."

"People don't tend to shrink." I agreed. "Why aren't you at school?"

"Reading days." He said. "I'm supposed to be finishing a paper that's due tomorrow at midnight but it will get done." He said shrugging. "I came home to try and relax for a while but of course the second mom found out they needed help with the community center…" he rolled his eyes. "I told her I'm already in college, I don't need volunteer hours anymore but she didn't seem to think that was a good excuse so here I am."

"You poor thing." I said sarcastically.

"Hey I'm not like you." He said defensively. "I don't find this sort of stuff fun. Besides, we can't all be the Elders' favorite."

"It doesn't have anything to do with that." I said rolling my eyes.

"Really?" he asked his tone disbelieving.

"I just want to help out my community."

"Still playing the good Samaritan I see." He smirked obviously amused. "Well a least tell me it helps with the ladies."

"Not really." I said shrugging.

"You can tell me." He said. "You always get the prettiest girls. Who are you dating right now?"

"No one." I said honestly.

"C'mon Jason." He said his smirk continuing to grow. "You can't really expect me to believe that."

"I'm not."

"Seriously?"

"Yes!" I said in indignation.

He still looked suspicious, but just as he started to speak several things happened at once.

There was a loud 'clack!' as someone dropped a two by four of the roof, smacked Frank off a ladder which started to tip dangerously towards the table saw and the person in front of it.

Time seemed to slow down and the next thing I knew I tackled the girl just as the ladder came down and was mangled by the table saw.

"Oh my god." I heard Nick say while several people swore.

"Frank are you alright?!"

"What happened?!"

I groaned as people, still shouting, started running towards us. I'd hit the ground hard, but all of the pain and the calamity around me seemed to fade away as the girl pushed her self off my chest, brushed her hair out of her face, and looked down at me with a pair of familiar green eyes.

"Tani?" I asked so shocked, I didn't realize my arms were still around her.

"Yeah." She said looking as awkward as I felt. "Hi."

I wasn't sure how long we stayed there, but I was brought back to reality when several people cleared their throats and someone wolf whistled.

"Sorry." I said awkwardly letting go of her and getting up while someone said. "Take it easy there Romeo." And Tani looked about ready to die of embarrassment.

"Are you two ok?" Sam asked pushing through the crowd. "What happened?"

"The ladder tipped over and about sawed her in half." Nick said gesturing to the mangled bits of metal that were no longer distinguishable between saw and ladder. "Luckily Jason pushed her out of the way in time."

"But no one is hurt?" he asked.

"Frank might need an icepack," a man named Jack answered. "But other than that I think we're fine."

"Alright that's good." Sam said sounding relieved. "We can get back to work just please be careful everybody. Alfred already nail gunned his foot, the last thing we need is another injury…"

He walked back to the table where the plans were set up and people slowly started filtering back to their stations.

I expected Nick to join us, but he gave me a shrewd look and kept his distance.

"Thanks." Tani said rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly.

"No problem." I said unable to stop glancing at the twisted metal heap in which the saw blades were exposed. That could have been extremely bad. "What are you doing here?" I asked still stunned at her sudden appearance.

"My Mom asked me to pick up some records from the community center." She said avoiding my gaze. "She's writing a paper and thought we might have something useful stored away."

"Oh." I said. Both of Tani's parents were professors, her father specialized in Native American history where as her mother studied Native American art. "How is she?" I asked. "And your dad."

"Fine." She said and again there was a sense of awkwardness between us.

I'd asked partially out of habit, and partially out of interest, but I knew she was thinking back to the days when we were little, when my parents were still alive and our families had been really close. Our parents used to joke about us getting married, not that Tani or I really understood what that meant at the time, but it did make it feel that much worse when I remembered the last thing her father had said to me.

 _'I never want to see you near my daughter again'_ before he slammed their door in my face.

"They're busy." She continued no doubt to kill the awkward silence. "On sabbatical in New Mexico."

"Yeah," I said nodding. "I remember them talking about wanting to do that."

"Yeah." She said looking around. "That's why she needed me to get the records, but I didn't realize the center was closed for repairs. I guess I'll just come back when you're finished."

"I can get you in." I said and she looked at me in surprise.

"You can?"

"Yeah. There's a door in the back, you can open it with a key code. It leads right to the achieves." I said wondering why I was telling her this as my mouth just kept throwing out words. The Elders didn't want just anyone having access.

"They let you have they code?" she asked looking impressed. "Alex was right, you really do have this whole place in your back pocket."

"Of course I'd know the code." I said. "I set it up."

"Well, what's the code?" she asked.

"Zero five zero four." I said realizing a half a second too late why I shouldn't have told her that.

"You mean… zero five as in may, and zero four as in the fourth?" she asked.

"Yeah." I said carefully gaging her reaction, but her expression was hard to read. "It's just, I've known your birthday science I've know what a birthday is, it's burned into my mind." I said quickly trying to explain but feeling like I was only making things worse. "I mean it's really easy to remember…"

I didn't understand the way she was looking at me, like she couldn't decide if she wanted to smile or for me to apologize.

"Well, thanks for the code." She said not meeting my eyes. "And you know. Making it so I don't have scars on my back too."

She obviously meant this as a joke, but I didn't find it very funny. There was a very awkward silence between us before she said.

"Ok I'm going to go now." She said sounding embarrassed again and made her way towards the far end of community center.

I watched her go, feeling extremely out of place, and when she turned around the corner of the building, I noticed a lot of the men around the construction sights were glancing at me, all wearing the same kind of grin. The kind parents usually give you when ever you have your first girl over.

"Dude." Nick said walking back to me. "That was painful to watch."

"What?"

"Did you like… forget how to talk to girls or something?" he asked.

"What? No." I said annoyed and realization seemed to dawn on his features.

He smiled.

"What?" I asked cautiously

"That's why you're not dating anybody!" He said his grin growing.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You like Tani." He said laughing. "Like you really, _really_ like Tani."

"No I don't."

"Oh yes you do." He said laughing. "I've see you talk to girls before, usually you're all collected and smooth, but the second you saw who she was you looked like a deer in head lights. You totally have a crush on her."

"I don't have a crush on anyone." I said annoyed. "I'm not twelve."

"Has this never happened to you before?" he asked curiously.

"Would you just go back to work?"

"Alright." He said with a smirk. "Don't look now, but she'd headed back this way."

I turned to look over my shoulder and he laughed. No one was there.

"You totally have a crush." He said then started walking back with the rest of his crew.

I tried to ignore this, no one could really know how I felt about her, right?

But when Tani came back out, her head buried in a large stack of paper work, several of the others caught me looking at her, and they were all wearing that same smile.

'Great.' I thought bitterly. 'At this rate everyone on the reservation but is going to know how I feel.'

Chase was right about one thing though, I could hear them talking to each other even when they thought they were out of audible range. They kept saying about how it 'made sense' and they 'knew it since they were kids'.

I ignored all of it just trying to focus on untangling what was left of the table saw and the ladder, but there was one voice I couldn't.

 _'It's not going to work.'_

I froze. It had been a while since I'd heard Sam's voice in my head. I looked over to see him simultaneously having a conversation with a few of the men who were in charge of mixing the cement for the foundation repair, but he was looking at me.

While we weren't technically part of the same pack, he was still an alpha even if his pack had disbanded and moved on with their lives. If he really wanted to, he could communicate with me inside my head.

 _'I know why you haven't told your grandfather you've imprinted. It's not going to work.'_

"You don't know that." I muttered more to myself but I knew he could hear me.

 _'I do. I went through the same thing with Emily, as well as several others have tried to avoid imprinting but it just doesn't work like that. You need to tell her.'_

"I don't need to do anything." I said angrily.

 _'You're forgetting Jason. The imprint effects her too, it can't be stopped.'_

I didn't respond to this but I felt a sense of unease that I quickly tried to repress. Even if the others had failed this wasn't a normal situation. It wasn't like the girls they imprinted on had hated them. I really doubted the effects of a human under an imprint would counter how much anger she'd accumulated for me over the years, all of which I deserved.

I might have wanted to be around her, but I also wanted her to be happy, and so far the best way to achieve that was by staying far away.


	9. Chapter 9

Tpov

I don't know what exactly was happening between Jason and I, but whatever it was I didn't like it. Over the next week he avoided me like the plague and I while I thought this would make me happy, it didn't. When I saw him I wanted to be around him. It felt like it used to between us and I wanted that feeling to stay but when he was gone I was so confused.

It didn't help that I kept having weird dreams about him. It seemed like wherever I went I ran into him and his friends, and whenever I saw him I didn't know whether I wanted to talk to him or ignore him. When I thought about it objectively, I didn't want to be anywhere near him. I wanted to be angry and I just wanted to be left alone, but when he was near, well that was a different story.

He still didn't talk to me at school, but I found myself hoping he would. I didn't know what I would say if he did. Would I want to yell at him and make him apologize for everything he'd done? Or would I want to see him laughing and smiling like when we were kids?

I didn't know what I wanted. He was always just around and I still got that weird vibe his friends were watching me all the time. And Alex.

Part of me felt like I was just being paranoid, but then I remembered how they were talking about him in the gym, and Rachel's expression when I'd asked about him.

I debated asking Jason what the hell was going on, part of me wondered if he was even having us followed, we ran into them all the time. But then Jason and his friends would disappear again for days, and even then I wasn't sure if I even wanted to talk to him.

Everything was confusing, and Jason seemed to be at the center of it. I wanted to hate him. I really, really wanted to hate him, but deep down, where I knew I couldn't lie to myself, I knew I didn't even if I refused to admit it. It was the same part of me that made my heart skip every time I caught him looking at me and convinced me, even for only half a second, that it meant something.

I dealt with it the only way I knew how, but throwing myself into art.

I didn't know what it was about aggressive music, but somehow it just helped me think, the louder the better. Drums, guitars, and screams blasted from my head phones as I tilted my head and stared at the canvas waiting to decide what I want to do next.

"Tani."

I picked up my brush as he singer shouted about the end of the world and continued to paint.

"Tani!"

Something was missing, I wasn't sure what.

"TANI!"

I jumped as my headphones were pulled from my ears and I looked around.

"Jeez Tan," Nona said as she heard the music blasting from the earbuds. "How are you not deaf?"

"She's built up an immunity." Alex said with a smirk. "Years of decibel abuse make her ears think that full volume is normal."

"What are you guys doing out here?" I asked confused. My aunt and uncle didn't have room for me to have paintings in progress constantly set up around in the house, but they did in their shed in the back yard. I'd managed to set up a few easels around the lawn mower and gardening supplies and had come outside after dinner to work on a new idea I'd been toying with lately.

"We came to find you." Alex said.

"I thought you had work tonight." I asked with a frown.

"I had work last night." He said giving me a strange look.

"Tani…" Nona said. "How long have you been out here?"

"A couple hours." I said with a shrug.

"Did you sleep?" she asked suspiciously.

"Why would I go to bed?" I asked annoyed. "We just had dinner."

They didn't respond.

"What?" I asked further annoyed when they exchanged bizarre looks. Why were they looking at each other like that?

"What time do you think it is?" Alex asked cautiously.

"I dunno," I said with a shrug. "Nine, ten?"

The continued to look at me, utterly astounded.

"Eleven?"

Still no response.

"Twelve…?"

"It's six thirty in the morning." Nona said.

"No its not." I said rolling my eyes.

"Tani that's why I'm here." Alex said. "To pick you up for school."

"Have you been out here for twelve hours?" Nona asked in concern.

"No." I said but then I glanced out the window and saw that the dusky night sky I'd last seen through it was now bright with early morning light. "Ok, maybe."

"Good god." Alex muttered while Nona's eyes went wide.

"Why didn't you go to bed?"

"I wasn't done." I said wondering why they were looking at me like that. They were acting like I was insane.

"Well go get your stuff." Alex said being the first to recover. "School starts in a half an hour."

"I'm not going." I said turning back to the canvas.

"What? Why?" Nona asked in shock.

"I'm not done."

"So?" Alex asked with a laugh.

"So I need to finish." I said picking up my brush.

"Well finish after school."

I shook my head.

"I can't stop, I don't want to forget what I'm doing."

"You can't just skip school." Nona said incredulously.

"Why?"

"What we supposed to tell your teachers?" she asked with a sense that she felt I was being unreasonable.

"This isn't art school." Alex said with a laugh. "They don't care about your about your artistic process."

"But I'm not done." I said in frustration.

"You can finish after class." Nona said soothingly. "But we've got to go to school. Like now."

"But-"

"Now." She and Alex said in unison pushing me towards the door of the shed and I sighed.

"Fine." I said grumpily.

"You are so weird." Alex said with a chuckle.

School passed in a blur of tiredness. I barely heard what my teachers went over in lessons, it was all I could do to stay awake, by the time I got to Art I was considering faking being sick just to go home, but then I remembered if I did I had no ride home.

We were learning about lighting today, the desks were set up in groups of three and four with a lamp and a random object from around the class. We were supposed to be drawing the object with the lamp positioned in different places, but I hadn't even picked up my sketch pad, instead I was doodling on the table.

"You forgot to sleep last night, didn't you?" asked a voice and I looked up in surprise.

While people usually talked as they worked in this class, Jason and I had been assigned to the same table, and the girl that usually sat with us, Carissa, had dropped the class. The passed twenty minutes had passed with silence between us. This was the first time he'd spoken to me in art.

"How did you know?"

"You've been a zombie all day. You think I don't remember anything from when we were kids?" he asked then hesitated before saying. "What are you working on?"

"What makes you think-"

"You've got paint on your cheek," he said and I touched my face to see that he was right. "Plus look the way you always look when you're absorbed in a project." He continued. "Totally distracted." He frowned suddenly looking concerned. "You didn't forget to eat again did you?"

"I-I don't know." I said honestly.

"Have you eaten anything since yesterday?" he asked patiently.

"No."

He let out a familiar laugh and rummaged in his book bag for a second.

"Here." He said tossing me a few granola bars.

"You don't have to," I started but he cut me off.

"I know I don't have to." He said. "But no offense Tan, you look like you're about to pass out. You need food."

"Alright." I said ripping open one of the wrappers and taking a bite out of the snack.

"You know you really haven't changed." He said going back to his sketch pad. "Like at all. I don't think you even grew an inch."

"Yeah, well. I think you did enough growing for the both of us."

He grinned.

"I still can't draw though." He said turning his sketch book for me to see, showing me his sketches. The shadows were inconsistent, the shading erratic, and lines weren't straight.

"It looks fine." I said a little awkwardly.

"You sucked at lying back then too." He said amused.

"Well if you know you're bad, why did you take art?" I asked frowning.

"Habit." He said with a shrug and returning the sketch pad. "We always used to take art together. It was the only class they mixed years when we were kids."

"What does that matter?"

"It was the only class I could take with you."

"You took art because of me?"

"Why else would I take it?" he asked raising an eyebrow. "All my natural talent?"

"You always said it was because it was an easy A." I muttered.

"Just because you're a terrible liar doesn't mean I have to be." He said erasing something and I felt myself blush. "Though I don't know why you believed me, you of all people should know this class isn't easy."

He scribbled something out looking frustrated then tossed the paper on the table.

"I think this is beyond saving." He said amused then looking at me.

"You're not going to try?"

"I think I've resigned myself to the fact that if I wanted to be an artist, I'd be a starving artist."

"It's not that bad." I said.

"Yes it is," he chuckled. "But it's ok. I'm good at other things. You going to draw anything? I mean besides the nice collage you've started on the table."

"I don't think so." I said looking down at my blank page.

"Well looks like we'll both get storm clouds today." He said looking at the daily grade sticker boards that was marked with sun, cloud, and thunderstorm stickers that rated your performance for the day. "Think we'll survive it?"

"No." I said with a straight face. "It never rains here. I don't think I'm mentally prepared."

He grinned.

Seeing him smile was odd. It felt familiar and strange at the same time. Like looking at a picture of a close friend you stopped talking to a long time ago.

"I imagine they had a much different grading scale at your previous school."

"Nope." I said trying not to laugh. "Stickers are widely considered the be standard for evaluating artistic ability."

"Did you get lots of fluffy clouds?" he asked with mock severity.

"Straight suns." I said.

"Well that is impressive." He said with a sarcastic smirk.

"I'm kind of a big deal." I agreed unable to contain a smile and he laughed.

A moment of silence passed between us where neither of us seemed to know what to say, but again it was he who started the conversation.

"It must have been a lot different in California." He said eventually his smile fading. "I heard Nona and Alex talking about it once. Sounded like it was perfect for you."

"That's what everyone keeps saying." I said frowning.

"And what do you think?" he asked.

I didn't answer for a second, thinking.

"I'm happy to be home." I said eventually.

"You'd rather be here?" he asked in what looked like complete shock.

"Why does that surprise everyone?" I asked frowning. "Do people not want me here?"

"No." he said so quickly it was my turn to be startled. "It's just. You're different you know? Not in a bad way," he added quickly when he saw my expression. "You just are. You see the world in a different way. A way I wish I could see it." He hesitated as if he wasn't sure what he was about to say was smart, but it fell out anyways. "It's what I always liked about you."

I didn't know what to say.

Before middle school, if Jason had said something like that to me I would have believed him, but he'd spent several years showing just how bad he thought different was.

"I know you probably don't believe me." He said looking at his hands awkwardly. "After my parents died, I know you think I hated you. If you did to me everything I did to you I would have thought so too," he sighed. "But I never hated you."

The bell rang and I suddenly remembered we were in school, in the middle of class. Somehow I'd forgotten.

How did he always do that to me?

"Anyways," he said shaking his head and suddenly there was no trace of his smile left. "I'll see you around."

He shouldered his book bag and stood to walk out with the rest of the class heading towards the hall.

I watched him leave, not entirely certain what had just happened. It was the first real conversation we'd had in years. All of the sudden he wanted to talk to me?

But he didn't look back as he left and started talking to a boy in his year, and it was as if none of it had happened.

I walked into the hall confused and made my way to lunch.

"You will not believe what just happened in Spanish," he said laughing when we met in the cafeteria and went to wait in line. "Lewis was getting annoyed by Arnold, you know the guy in our math class, 'cuz he kept popping bubbles with his gum behind him. So Lewis takes a rubber band out of his pocket and-"

But he caught my expression and his story died.

"Are you ok?"

"I don't know." I said honestly as we each grabbed a tray with a burger on it and went to go sit in our usual spot in the back corner of the cafeteria.

"Did something happen?" He asked as we put our trays on the table and sat down.

"Yes. Well, no." I said in frustration. "I don't know. You know?" I finished looking up at him and he gave me a bemused expression.

"I'm going to need a little more than that Tani."

"Jason was talking to me in art."

"Wait, like an actual conversation?" he asked in shock. "I thought you guys were sort of not talking."

"Yeah me too." I said.

"What did you talk about?" he asked curiously.

"Nothing." I said honestly. "He asked about California and we talked about stickers. And then he just all the sudden out of nowhere tells me he never hated me."

"Well I could have told you that." He said shrugging.

"What do you mean?" I asked confused.

"Jason never hated you." He agreed.

"You do remember he broke into my locker and put a gerbil in it, right?"

"Yeah," he said chuckling. "That thing was kind of cute."

"It ate my math homework." I said incredulously. "And he hid my back pack in the boy's locker room after gym in seventh grade."

"I know." He said with a sigh. "But, you have to remember his parents had just died, and Jason always had anger problems. Remember when Chase pushed you off the swings in elementary school during recess? Jason broke his arm. Just because Chase pushed you a foot onto the ground, but now they're best friends."

"What's your point?" I asked.

"I'm not defending him for everything he's done, but he was going through a hard time. You were his best friend and he was dealing with something no kid should ever have to go through. He freaked out and you were the closest person in his life so you got the repercussions of it. But you weren't the only one." He said. "After his parents passed he got into fights almost every week. Don't you remember they were talking about expelling him? No matter how far he went, I don't think he ever meant to actually hurt you."

"I guess." I said frowning.

"Look Tani." He said seriously and his eyes met mine. "After he found out about what happened to you in the woods, he went to your house when you were still in the hospital and begged your parents to let him talk to you, to try and explain."

"He did?" I asked in surprise.

"Yeah, but your father said no."

"How do you know this?"

"Nona told me, she was inside with your Mom."

"Why didn't she tell me this?" I asked quietly.

"She knew you were still too freaked out about the attack to deal with Jason as well. I know you think he just left you, but it's not like he just turned up back on the reservation while you were still out there."

"He didn't?"

"No. Jason went missing too, but it was all hushed up when they found you."

"Why?" I asked frowning.

"I don't know." He said shrugging. "but I was part of the search party remember? We were supposed to be looking for both of you, but when we found you Sam said the search was over. He completely ignored everyone when they said we still needed to find Jason and told everyone to go home. Said he'd deal with it himself. But according to Nona, when he did turn up the first place he went was to your house and he looked pretty beat up as well."

"What happened?" I asked.

"No idea." He said with a shrug. "He wouldn't tell anyone. I think the elders forbid him to say anything. I know the adults aren't supposed to talk about it. That's why I believe you when you say something was out there that night." He said significantly. "Even if it's not around anymore, there's definitely something they tried to cover up."

I looked over at Jason who was talking to Lewis, they were laughing about something and I quickly looked away.

He hadn't left me after all…

"He felt really bad about it Tani," Alex said frowning. "All of it. He called Nona every day you were in the hospital asking how you were, and bothered us for weeks when you first move to California, he wanted to make sure you were ok."


	10. Chapter 10

Jpov

I knew Talking to Tani in art was a mistake. I knew before I opened my mouth, while I was talking to her, and instantly after I left that I'd crossed a line I shouldn't have allowed myself to cross, but still… The way she'd smiled at me. Was that so wrong?

'Don't think about it,' I thought stubbornly. 'Don't think about her.'

But I couldn't help it. I had to. I didn't want to stop.

It was amazing how just a few minutes of conversation had utterly destroyed my resolve. I'd been struggling and struggling to stay away from her for weeks, and in the second she'd smiled like that I'd completely let it go. It was the same smile she'd had when we were kids. Seeing it was like seeing the summer sun after weeks of winter. Nothing compared to it. It was the best feeling I'd ever experienced.

I shouldn't have talked to her. I knew it was going to be that much harder to stay away from her now, but even if it was I didn't care. It had been worth it.

"You're in a good mood." Lewis said suspiciously as he, Chase, and I walked to gym.

"So?"

"You're never in a good mood lately." He continued.

"He's right." Chase agreed. "It's weird."

I shrugged while they both continued to watch me cautiously, as if I was a bomb that was about to go off.

"Did you kill a blood sucker between classes or something?" Lewis pressed apparently unable to restrain himself after about thirty seconds of silence.

"Jason doesn't care about that." Chase said rolling his eyes. "You're the only one of us who gets a thrill out of murder."

"It's not murder." Lewis scoffed. "It's hunting. Blood suckers aren't people."

"Speaking of people who are in a good mood." Chase said nodding towards the opposite side of the gym as we entered, where Alex and Tani were talking excitedly about something. I caught the words 'Force' and 'light saber' and knew they were planning to marathon The Star Wars movies soon.

"What does Aster say?" he asked looking at me. "Is Alex any closer to phasing?"

"Not that we can tell."

"Do you think being a geek has something to do with it?" Lewis wondered aloud. "Cuz I'd totally start reading comic books if it helped me stop bursting into wolf form every time I fight with my little brother."

"I think you've just got a short temper Lewis, nothing is going to help that." Chase said with a smirk and Lewis shrugged.

They continued to debate whether or not comic books really helped control phasing as we changed in the locker rooms.

"The entire premise is stupid." Chase said as he pulled his uniform out of his locker and took off his shirt.

"It could be working for Alex." Lewis insisted. "He reads a lot of comics, he's always got one with him at school."

"I don't care if he keeps a hundred comics with him." Chase said in exasperation. "You're not going to convince me a bunch of pictures crappily stapled together are going to stop a wolf from phasing."

"Ok but if they really did help." Lewis said pulling on his shorts. "Which do you think would be more effective? Marvel or D.C.?"

"I don't the publisher matters." Chase said, apparently becoming interested in the topic in spite of himself. "I think it be more about what kind of hero you're reading."

"So Batman or Superman, which one would give you better control?"

"Batman obviously." Chase said. "He's all about restraint."

"See I think it would be Superman." Lewis countered. "He's born with powers, super hero strength, sound familiar?" he asked with a significant expression. "Batman only needs restraint when he's fighting. Superman has to be careful twenty-four seven."

"What do you think Jason?"

"I think you're both idiots." I said rolling my eyes and their faces fell until I said. "We're obviously Hulks."

"Good point." Chase said with a laugh.

"Yeah." Lewis agreed. "People really don't like us when we're angry."

I grinned and after we shut our lockers we walked back into the gym.

They started debating what an over dose of radiation would do to our abilities but I lost track of their conversation when I spotted Tani sitting on the bleachers. She waiting for Alex and looking as usual as if her mind was somewhere else.

As always when I saw her the world seemed to fall away until she was the only thing I could see. She didn't realize how beautiful she was, I knew she didn't. She never had. Even when we were kids she didn't realize the effect on the few people who actually saw her. But then again maybe that was why she liked to be in her own little world. If she'd known how I saw her it might be a little overwhelming.

I'd never much liked being what I was. I didn't like fighting, even if I was good at it. It bothered me how so much of our power was so heavily influenced by the unstable emotions I'd fought so hard all my life to control. I hated how easily I could hurt people, how it had caused me to hurt her and I only tolerated my position as pack leader because I knew it was what the others wanted but if it allowed me to protect her… Well, maybe it was worth it. In this insane world of shape shifters and vampires, and god knows what else was out there, she was the one thing I could look at and see as absolutely good. A ray of sunlight in this dark shadow that had crossed over my life, and I would die before I let anything block it out.

Of course she didn't realize any of this. Even as kids, when my anger was so much more manageable, it was easier when she was around. I was more than happy to just watch her get lost in her own world, waiting for her to eventually come back to me. I knew she'd never known how much of a hold she'd had over me and I didn't tell her because I knew she wouldn't know how to react to it, but maybe that's why I'd been so angry whenever any other boy had given her attention. I wanted all of the time when she was aware of what was going on around her to be with me and that hadn't changed.

She was pulling at the sleeve of her left arm unconsciously trying to cover the scars that ran down her arm and I felt a cold weight settle in my stomach, freezing the warm feeling in my heart.

"You probably shouldn't stare at them." Said a voice and I looked down to see Rachel was standing next to me. "It makes her self conscious."

"Right." I said forcing myself to look away.

"It's weird though." She said frowning. "The one she's most self conscious about you can't even see."

"What are you talking about?"

"The one on her neck." She said.

"Her neck?" I asked looking at her in confusion. "She doesn't have a scar on her neck."

"Yes she does." Rachel continued gesturing to a spot between just above her collar bone and shoulder. "Right there. I'm not surprised you don't know about it. It's always covered, either by her hair or her shirt. Ask Sarah. It's why she only braids her hair to that side."

"Hey! Rach!" Chase said and we turned to see he and Lewis had been joined by Sarah. "Who do you think would win? The Hulk version of Lewis or the Hulk version of me?"

"What?" she asked looking totally confused.

"Don't ask." I said rolling my eyes.

"Alright ladies." Taffot said walking into the gym from his office. "We're playing basket ball today."

I saw Alex grin down at Tani who looked most unenthusiastic about the activity choice for the day.

"You gonna play?" Alex asked her and she shook her head.

"I think I'll take the zero for the day." She muttered and he shrugged then went to line up with the rest of the class while Tani stayed on the bleachers.

"Pick your teams." Taffot said tossing Chase a sack of pinnies.

Unsurprisingly, most of the points were scored mostly by Chase, Lewis, Alex, and I. Basketball was a tall person game, and when you had a foot over most of the class you had an advantage.

I knew Lewis and Chase were trying to show off as much as possible for their girlfriends, and I could tell Alex was enjoying his new found athletic ability but for once I didn't really care who won this game.

"Come on man." Lewis said irritated as Chase blew by me and dunked the ball. I'd been distracted when I'd noticed Tani staring at me. "Get your head in the game!"

I muttered an apology I didn't really feel and he made a hopeless gesture. I guess if Tani cared at all about sports I might have been just as competitive as them but I knew I could have scored eight three pointers in a row and she wouldn't have cared. She probably wouldn't have noticed. Every time Alex got excited about a basket he made he'd smirk at her and she'd roll her eyes obviously irritated her nerdy, level headed best friend was acting like such a guy. She laughed as he made a funny face and the ball went back into play.

With five minutes left in the game Chase and Alex had pulled ahead and play was getting very competitive. It wasn't just us anymore.

"Hey! Watch it!" someone shouted and we looked over to see a boy named Zach getting to his feet next to Alex who'd accidentally knocked him over.

"Sorry man." Alex said offering a hand to help him up but Zach ignored it.

"Just watch where you're going." Zach spat and Alex looked a little annoyed.

"It was an accident dude."

I saw Tani frown as her eyes moved to Alex, but the rest of the players started to regroup.

"Are you kidding? That was totally an intentional foul!"

"I didn't even see you!" Alex snapped and several people stared at him. He never shouted.

In unison Chase, Lewis, and I all started walking towards Alex, like me they thought he might be losing control, but my fear doubled when I realized Tani had gotten there first.

"Are you ok?" she asked putting a hand on his arm, but his temper increased.

"No!" he said indignantly. He looked mean. "He's been acting like a total jerk the entire game and now he's saying _I_ fouled _him_?"

"It's not a big deal." Tani muttered.

"No it is a big deal." Alex said taking an aggressive step towards Zach who backed away realizing just how much bigger Alex was than him. "He's acting like an ass."

"Alex calm down." Tani said stepping between the two as if she'd have been able to do anything.

"I'm sick of people like him pushing me around!"

Several people were looking at them now, but I was surprised that Tani alone didn't look scared. Just concerned for her friend.

"Just let it go."

"No!" he shouted trying to push passed her but she didn't move. I saw a shudder go through him and gave up all pretense as I started to run. This had to be it. He was finally going to phase.

"Tani get out of the way." Alex snarled trying to get passed her to Zach. He pushed her a little too hard she started to fall but Chase caught Tani as I stepped between the two.

"Walk away." I said grabbing his arm and forcing him towards the exit of the gym.

"You're on _his_ side?" he asked furiously.

"You need to calm down."

"But-" he started indignantly.

"Alex I don't give a crap about basketball." I said angrily. "And neither do you and if you lose your temper around her you're going to regret it."

I didn't say Tani's name but I didn't have to. What else did we have in common?

He glanced back into the gym where Sarah and Rachel had converged on Tani to see if she was ok and suddenly, it was as if the anger that had sparked so suddenly within him just vanished. He seemed to realize what he'd done and once again a moment we'd been so sure he was about to phase passed with nothing.

"Go home." I said stiffly.

"I should talk to Tani." He said looking guilty

"Go home." I repeated. "You can talk to her later, once you've cooled off."

I didn't care if it looked like he'd stopped the phasing for now. I didn't want him anywhere near her until we could be sure.

"You can't tell me what to do." He said but his voice was uncertain, as if he wasn't quite sure he believed it.

"Watch me." I said darkly.

"She's my best friend." He muttered resentfully.

"I don't care."

He gave me a shrewd look.

"I see what this is about." He said quietly in a tone that surprised me into letting him go.

"You don't understand." I started angrily.

"No I think I do." He said annoyed and I willed myself to keep calm.

"You're around her all the time and if you lose your temper-"

"What? I'll turn into you?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yes." I said flatly.

"I'm not you." He said stiffly.

"You're more like me than you think." I snapped and he looked at me his expression hard to read, but his eyes were narrowed. I didn't like the way he was looking at me.

"You're still obsessed with her." He said quietly, realization dawning on his features.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I said looking away from him.

"You are, aren't you?" he asked and I couldn't tell if he was angry or not. "It's just like how it was before she left the reservation. I wasn't sure if you were in love with her or you hated her, but what I did know was that you had to have her all to yourself." He hesitated, still looking at me before continuing. "You can't stand the thought that you have to share her with anyone else, can you?"

I looked at him helplessly, knowing there was nothing I could say to deny it that he would believe. How could I when he was right?

"I don't understand you two." He said shaking his head. "Why can't you just get over what happened and be friends again? You both obviously miss each other."

"Tani misses me?" I asked quietly, unable to keep a small hope from rising within me.

"She'd never admit it to anyone but I know she does."

"I thought she hated me."

"Has she ever hated you Jason?" he asked annoyed. "I mean she's been mad, but how long as that ever lasted?"

I avoided the question.

"It doesn't matter. It's probably better if I wasn't around her anyways."

"God you both are so dramatic." He said sounding irritated again. "Fine. I'll go home if it really means that much to you, but you know it wouldn't kill you to try and talk things out."

"I thought you of all people would want me to stay away from her." I said confused.

"Why?"

"You're her best friend."

"Yeah. Which means I know Tani." He said shrewdly. "And she's happiest when she's around you."

He shook his head and made his way down the hall towards his locker where he no doubt was going to grab his things before driving home. I watched him go feeling conflicted, and the bell rang.

Students flooded the hall and I made my way to my locker. I was just wondering if I could convince the pack to ditch the girls and go cliff diving when a voice drove all thought from my mind.

"Hey."

I turned and looked down to see Tani, her glasses pushed to the top of her head, was looking up at me holding a bundle of fabric in her arms.

"Hey." I said in complete surprise and she looked away apparently afraid to make eye contact.

"This is yours." She said holding out what I recognized to be my jacket.

"Oh, thanks." I said taking it and she hesitated kicking the back of her heel with her toe and biting her lip in the way that I knew meant she was nervous about something. "What's wrong?" I asked and she looked up at me.

"What's wrong with Alex?"

"What?" I asked completely floored.

"You know something's wrong with him, I know you do." She insisted her eyes meeting mine. "I could see it when you forced him out of the gym. You and his friends are always staring at him. And he never acts like he did today. We both know something is wrong."

"Why are you asking me this?" I asked quietly.

"Because unlike everyone else, you're the only other person who seems worried. Do you know what it is?"

I hesitated. I wanted to lie and tell her everything was ok, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I couldn't lie to her.

"I can't tell you." I said and she looked away bitterly.

"Of course you can't."

"Tani, wait." I started but she shook her head.

"I'll see you around Jason." She said dejectedly and walked away.


	11. Chapter 11

Tpov

Over the next week things were as awkward as ever between Jason and I. I didn't know what to do. When I was with him I wanted him to be around, but when he was gone I couldn't help but be confused. One second it was like he wanted to talk to me, the next, it was like he couldn't be far enough away. He'd talk to me in class, but then ignore me in the halls. We'd be laughing in art, but by gym it was like I didn't exist. I don't think I'd ever met a more frustrating person.

This confusion wasn't helped by the fact I knew he knew what was going on with Alex. Why wouldn't he tell me? While he didn't have anymore outbursts like the gym, his temper was shorter. One day he was perfectly fine, the next he seemed moody, well moody for Alex. What was also weird was the confidence boost he'd seemed to get around Nona.

At one point hardly able to talk around her, I found myself awkwardly stuck in the middle of their flirty conversations. I once even came home late after talking with my art teacher at school to find Alex had gotten off work early and was already at Nona's house where they'd been watching Star Wars together. This irritated me slightly because I'd always bugged her to watch it with me but she'd refused saying that it was 'stupid', and Alex and I were supposed to wait watch it until a day we could marathon all the movies together, but I didn't say anything about it. I guess that was one good thing to come out of whatever was happening to him. Seems like he'd finally grown a bit of a spine around Nona.

"Don't forget to turn in your permission slips!" our art teacher Mr. Wright called out after the bell rang and students flooded into the hall. "No permission slip, no field trip!"

"Field trip?" Alex, who'd been waiting outside the class to walk with me, asked curiously. "Where are you all going?"

"We're going to Seattle." I said happily.

"Seattle?" he asked raising an eyebrow. "Jeez that's a long trip."

"Yeah, that's why we're going on a weekend but it should be pretty fun. We get to roam around the city with our partners and look for examples of different art styles we've been learning about in class."

"Sounds right up your alley." He said with a grin which for some reason looked mischievous. "So, you partnered with Jason?"

"No." I said quickly. I'd been worried about this too seeing as Jason and I sat at the same table. "I'm partnered with a girl named Abigale. She sits in the front of the class."

"That's too bad." He said with a fake sigh. "You could have had him carry you around the city."

"Shut up." I snapped feeling my cheeks burn.

"Oh calm down, I was only teasing." He said rolling his eyes.

"Hey, if anyone gets to tease right now it's me." I insisted and he looked at me curiously.

"Why's that?"

"What's up with you and Nona?" I asked him.

I expected him to deny this or blush, but I was surprised when he smiled.

"I dunno, but I can talk to her now."

"What an accomplishment."

"It is." He said fervently looking excited despite my obvious sarcasm. "I'm really thinking about asking her to the dance like you said."

I smiled.

"That's great!"

"Yeah. What are you going to do?"

"About what?"

"About the dance." He clarified.

"Oh." I said frowning then shrugged. "No idea. Probably just do what I always do on Fridays nights you and Nona are busy."

"You can't spend the dance painting."

"Why not?"

"Because you should be having fun."

"That is fun for me."

"You should come with us." He encouraged.

"No." I said shaking my head. "The last thing I want to do is be the third wheel between my cousin and my best friend."

"So you're just going to spend the evening alone?"

"Yep."

"Well that's lame."

"You're lame."

"I'm not the one who's going to be spending the night of the dance by myself."

"Well you're a dork." I said stubbornly.

"Nerd."

"Loser."

"Geek."

"If you guys are done insulting each other." Said a familiar voice and we both turned to see Nona standing behind us. "I have something to discuss with you two."

"What is it?" we asked in unison.

"Remember when you agreed to help set up for the dance?"

"Alex agreed." I said frowning. "What about it?"

"I've got the sign-up sheet with me." She said brightly pulling a list of names out of her notebook and I noticed Jason and his friends' names were all listed, no doubt because Nona was making their girlfriends go. "We've got to keep track of everyone who's going to be there otherwise the principal is going to have a fit."

She handed a pencil to Alex who cheerfully signed his name then handed it to me as they both gave me an expectant expression.

"And it doesn't make any difference to either of you that I don't want to go?" I asked resentfully but signing my name.

"Not really." Nona said while Alex smirked and said. "Not at all."

"You're going." Nona continued and I rolled my eyes. "Besides, now that you're home we might actually have some decent decorations for once. I hope it's ok, but I told the council you'd be in charge of all the painted decorations."

She gave me an anxious look, but I felt curious despite myself.

"What's the theme?" I asked interested.

"Under the sea."

"Sounds like it could be cool," I said and her sunny disposition returned. "Sure, I'll do it."

"Great!" she said happily. "Then it's settled. "Mr. Wright already agreed to help with the decorations so you can collaborate with him! I can't believe the dance is only a few weeks away. There's so much we still have to do!"

She continued to talk about budgets and streamer counts while Alex listened politely and I let my mind wander.

It looked as if I was going to the dance whether I wanted to or not at this point. I guess I shouldn't complain, all it really meant was that I had a cousin and a best friend that wanted to spend time with me and have a fun night, but still. It would have been better if I had someone to go with. I really didn't feel like spending the slow songs awkwardly talking to other couples, or even worse, standing alone.

Nona and Alex continued to talk all through the lunch line when finally, as we were about to separate to our usual table Alex cut her off.

"Do you want to go with me?" he asked suddenly and I looked at him, feeling a bit awkward.

"What?" she asked distractedly. One of her friends just waved at her and she had been looking at them.

"Do you want to go to the dance with me?" Alex clarified and she blushed.

"Oh." She said looking a bit surprised, but then she smiled. "Yeah." She continued joyfully. "I'd love to."

"It's a date then." Alex said grinning looking happier than I'd ever seen him before, and after an embarrassed silence. Nona gave him one last glowing smile and said good bye to go sit with her friends.

He watched her walk off, looking as if he'd been hit on the back of the head with a two by four and I decided to bring him back to reality.

"Finally." I said in exasperation and he looked down at me as if just remembering I was there.

"I can't believe she said yes." He said his eyes wide and if it were possible, his smile growing even wider.

"Of course she said yes." I said amused. "You're nice, you're cute, and her parents like you. Why wouldn't she?"

"Thanks Tan." He said and we went to our usual table. "Now all we have to do is find you a date."

"Slow down there Romeo." I said frowning. "Who says I'm even going?"

"Don't be ridiculous." He said rolling his eyes. "Of course you're going. Why make decorations for a dance if you're not going to go to it?"

"Maybe I decided I wanted to add some of it to my portfolio."

"You're going." He said flatly. "Even if you don't have a date."

"Fine." I said resentfully. "But I'm not going to third wheel with you and Nona all night."

"Who are you going to third wheel with then?" he asked raising an eyebrow but I found I had no answer to this.

"I'm sure you'll find someone to go with." He said easily while I frowned.

"Easy for you to say. You have a date."

"You could ask someone." He pointed out.

"Who would I ask?" I questioned and it was his turn to not to reply. The only people I really spent time with on the reservation were Alex and Nona, the rest of the school either had forgotten who I was or only knew me as the space case who'd been traumatized in the woods years ago. It wasn't exactly like I'd had a ton of time back at school to meet anyone either. I barely paid attention in classes let alone spared any to get to know people in them.

"Didn't you say you had a boyfriend at that arts school you went to?" he asked pulling a face as he tried to remember details from our time apart. "You could always see if he wanted to come up." He smirked. "Unless you just invented him."

"Shut up." I said rolling my eyes. "And I didn't make anything up. But I'm not going to ask him to drive hours just for a stupid dance."

"Well, there's always Jason." He said shrugging and I felt a flash of indignation go through me.

"Are you insane?"

"What?" he asked innocently. "I bet if you asked he'd say yes. And he's the most popular guy in school. You couldn't ask for a better candidate."

"You do remember that I don't like him, right?"

"Oh come on Tani." He said looking a little annoyed.

"What?" I asked defensively.

"We both know you're not still angry at him."

"I-" I started but he cut me off.

"You want to be." He continued testily. "But you're not. Not really anyways. Why can't you just let it go?"

I hesitated, unsure how to answer his question. He was right of course. I'd always forgiven Jason no matter what he did, but how could I forgive him after all this time? After everything he'd done? I was so used to the thought of hating him, I wasn't sure if I could stop.

"He never meant to hurt you Tan." He said shaking his head. "No matter what he's done, you know that. Why do you think you could never stay mad at him?"

"That doesn't make it ok." I said angrily.

"Maybe not, but I see the way you look at him when you think I'm not watching. It's the same way he looks at you."

I wasn't sure why, but I blushed.

"What?"

"Yeah. I don't understand how you don't see it then again, you're not a very observant person. Not in that way at least. But it's obvious to me." He shrugged. "I don't get it. If you want to be friends again, just be friends."

"How am I supposed to be friends with him after everything he did?" I asked angrily.

"You let it go." He said with a shrug.

"But I can't." I said almost a little desperately.

"Why not?"

"Because every time I do, something happens again." I muttered. "Every time. He pulls me back in and I just…"

But I let my voice fade knowing I didn't need to tell Alex all the terrible things Jason had done to me. He'd been there for most of it.

"You think he hasn't changed." He said quietly.

"He never does." I muttered. "I know everyone thinks he has, but I always did too. And every time I was wrong."

He took a bite of his food and contemplated me as he chewed.

"What?" I asked. His expression was thoughtful, as if he were deciding carefully what he wanted to say. After another few seconds, he swallowed and gave me a shrewd look.

"You really think he hasn't changed?" he asked his tone doubtful.

"I know he hasn't." I said looking down at my hands. "All he has to do is turn up in my life again and he knows I'll forgive him. That's why I can't let myself."

"It's that easy for him?" he asked raising an eyebrow and I glared at him.

"You know it is." I shot back. "You've seen it."

"Then why hasn't he done it already?" he asked and I felt a shock go through me.

"What do you mean?"

"If he really hasn't changed, why hasn't he tried to come back into your life yet?"

"I-" I started, but once again I found I had no answer.

"Look Tani," he said flatly. "I've seen your and Jason's relationship over years and years, and in the past I would have agreed with you. But Jason really has changed, and you know how I know that?"

"How?"

"Because since the day you've come back, he's been torturing himself trying to stay away from you."

I looked at Alex, feeling astonishment pulse through me like an electric current.

"You don't see it because you're always off in your own head, but I see him when he his friends aren't watching, and when he's not trying to completely shut everything down when you're around him. He feels so bad about what happened between you that he's willing to sacrifice the one thing he's always wanted, before, and especially after his parents died."

"What's that?" I asked softly.

"You." he said flatly. "Apart from his grandfather you're the only connection he has to the only time in his life that I think he's ever really been happy. And yet, he's given it up to try and do what he thinks will make you happy. Would the old Jason do that?"

"No." I said remembering how back then I wasn't sure if I wanted to be around Jason, or if I felt trapped by him. Even when I thought he'd hated me, it seemed as if he'd refused to let me go, even if it just made things worse.

"But you're not happy, are you?" he asked me in a knowing tone.

"No." I said amazed that I was finally admitting it out loud.

"You want him back in your life." He continued and I looked at him fearful.

"But what if something goes wrong?"

"Well, that's a risk you're just going to have to be willing to take." He said shrugging. "It all boils down to this question. Are you happier with him in your life, or more afraid of what might happen if he is?"

"I don't know." I said honestly.

"Well that's something you're going to have to figure out on your own I'm afraid." He said as the bell rang. "But if I were you I'd figure it out quick."

"Why?" I asked in surprise.

"Because. Our next class is gym." He said sounding a little amused. "And he's in it."


	12. Chapter 12

Jpov

"Alright ladies," Coach Taffot said stepping out of the office and into the gym. "We're playing soccer today. Jason, Chase, do your thing."

We walked over to the bleachers where Tani was standing by Alex, and the rest of the class followed suit.

"Heads or tails?" Chase asked pulling a coin out of his pocket and tossing it into the air.

"Heads." I said out of habit as he caught it in one hand, then flipped it to the back of the other.

"Sucks to be you." He said grinning as he checked the coin. "I go first. Lewis, you're on my team."

"Alex." I said automatically.

He grinned and made his way towards me as Chase chose Rachel to join his team.

After about five minutes, the teams were selected. Tani who, predictably, was chosen last, ended up on my team and I heard her talking to Alex as the class set up on opposite sides of the gym.

"Where should I play?"

"No where." He said amused. "Your hands might be able to create beauty with a pencil or a brush but you can't do much with your feet besides walk. Just stand to the side and try not to get hit with the ball."

"I can do that." She said cheerfully and wandered off towards a corner near the net goal that had been set up on our side of the court.

Still laughing slightly, Alex walked towards the middle of the gym with me to face off with Chase and Lewis.

"Ready?" I asked as Taffot tossed me the ball and I dropped it on the center line.

"To win?" Chase asked with a grin. "Yeah, I think we are."

"You guys are going down." Lewis said bouncing on his toes and I could tell he was already amped up. If he couldn't be fighting vampires then sports were the next best thing.

I grinned.

"We'll see." I said then kicked the ball into play.

Now that Alex was, as Lewis put it, 'wolf sized', even without Aster here the teams were pretty even. Neither team's goalies were very good so both sides were scoring a lot.

Alex had just made a goal giving us the advantage at eight to nine and the teams reset to continue the game. Just after the kick off, one of the more aggressive players on Chase's team, a boy named Justin, chased a ball that had deflected off Sarah's foot and landed right in front of Tani who, far from paying any sort of attention to the game, had been staring out into the hall.

Things seemed to move in slow motion as I saw what was about to happen, then very quickly as it did.

He crashed straight into Tani in his attempt to steal the ball and she, being as tiny as she was, went flying. A strange combination of rage and terror flooded through me as helplessly, I watched her slam into the wall, then collapse to the ground.

"Tani!" Alex and I shouted in unison as Taffot blew his whistle and we sprinted to check on her.

He dropped to his knees next to her just as I skidded to a halt, and helped her sit up against the wall.

"Are you ok?" Alex asked and I was vaguely aware of thinking that under any other circumstance, I'd be impressed he'd beat me to her, but that was quickly was being pushed out of my mind as panic flooded through me and my heart slammed against the inside of my chest.

I didn't even realize I was holding my breath until I released it in relief as she answered.

"Yeah," Tani said her voice tight with pain as she rubbed her head then winced, and glancing down at her wrist which was rapidly starting to swell.

"Can you move your fingers?" Alex asked lifting her arm gently and inspecting it.

She nodded while moving each individual digit.

"That's good," he said sounding relieved. "It's probably just a sprain."

But his words were drowned out as anger rose within me as I spotted Justin getting to his feet.

I wasn't aware of thinking it, in fact, I wasn't even aware of moving, but the next thing I knew I'd grabbed Justin by the shirt and shoved him against the wall.

"What the hell were you thinking?" I asked him furiously.

"What the hell man?" Justin shouted his eyes wide.

"She wasn't even playing!"

"It was an accident!" he insisted. "It's not my feet she's like two feet tall!"

"Let him go Jason."

Chase had run over with Lewis and Coach Taffot, but I ignored him and pushed Justin harder against the wall.

"Jason!" Taffot shouted but I ignored him getting ready to strike, sensing danger, both Lewis and Chase grabbed me.

"Alex!" Chase shouted as he and Lewis attempted to pull me away from Justin with little success. In my anger, I was stronger than both of them. "A little help!"

Alex darted forward and together they managed to pull me back a few steps, but I continued to struggle, still intent on beating the crap out of Justin for what he'd done.

"C'mon man!" Lewis shouted. "It was an accident."

"I don't care." I snarled. "Get off of me!"

Chase and Lewis were forced to obey.

"Uh guys…" Alex said awkwardly now that he alone was trying to restrain me, but I easily pushed him away. He stumbled into Chase, but I barely registered this. All I could think about was making Justin pay.

"Jason! Cut it out!" Taffot shouted but ignored him. I started after Justin who looked terrified.

Several people were shouting now, girls screaming, other chanting "Fight! Fight! Fight!" Rachel and Sarah had made to our side of the gym. They were trying to get me to stop but I couldn't hear what they were saying. None of their words made it past my heart beat which was pounding in my ears, getting louder with each step I took towards him. I was so angry I didn't care what happened next.

I grabbed Justin again but a new voice broke the fury that was clawing through me, threatening to take me over. A voice I would have recognized anywhere.

"Jason stop!"

I froze as everything but Tani's voice was filtered from my mind. Everything including the intense fear and rage I'd just experienced at seeing her hurt.

"Let him go." She said and my hand released Justin's shirt without conscious thought.

I looked at her, everything around me seeming to move in slow motion as people continued to run and shout, but unlike the rest of the faces in the gym, hers didn't look scared. Her expression was hard to place, but when her eyes met mine I had a feeling she knew just as well as I did, that at that moment, I would do anything she told me to.

It was Alex's voice that brought me back to reality.

"Coach, I'm going to take Tani to the nurse." He said helping her to her feet. He was supporting most of her weight, and I noticed she'd refrained from standing on her right foot "I think she sprained her ankle too."

"I'm fine." She started but no one was listening to her.

"Have Jason do it." Chase said quickly, clearly worried that if she left the room my anger would return.

"I think Chase is right." Taffot agreed. "Jason walk Tani to the nurse. Take the time to cool off."

I didn't answer, but crossed the gym to where Alex was now leaning next to Tani supporting with her arm around his shoulders. He made to step out from under her arm but I didn't bother to take it. I simply picked her up and started walking towards the front of the school.

Neither of us spoke, and I could tell she was annoyed I was carrying her but was putting up with it just to make things easier.

Several of the administrators stared at us as we went through the main office to get to the nurse's room and when we got there she didn't tell us anything we didn't already know. Tani had sprained her ankle and her wrist.

The nurse asked Tani if she wanted to go home early, not that it would have mattered much. We had less than an hour left in the day.

In the end she gave Tani some Tylenol and a couple of ice packs, and told us to come find her in the main office if she needed any more. She then left us in extremely awkward silence to go file some medication forms.

"Alex said that it's been a while since you got into a fight." Tani, said as I wrapped her wrist with medical tape.

"Yeah." I agreed quietly. "It's been a while."

If you didn't include clashes between supernatural beings…

"So why'd you attack him?"

"You know why." I said adding another layer of tape for some reason afraid to look at her. She didn't sound angry, but I almost wished she was. I would have deserved it. I couldn't believe I'd almost lost control again. After all this time, when it came to her it was like all my sense was thrown out the window.

She shrugged.

"It wasn't that big of a deal."

"I don't like seeing you hurt." I said curtly.

"Like when Chase pushed me off the swings?"

"Well Chase of all people should have known better." I said.

"I guess you haven't changed much either."

"I guess not." I mumbled. "But I'm trying."

"Why?"

"Because at this rate, if you get hurt again I'm going to end up killing someone."

"I really don't understand you sometimes." She said quietly and I looked up from her wrist to see her giving me a cautious look.

She didn't look upset, more just curious. Like I was a puzzle she couldn't quite solve.

"I'm not really that complicated." I said unable to hold her gaze.

"Then how come no one knows what you and your friend's get up to?" she asked and I couldn't help but look at her.

"You're not supposed to ask me about that."

"I don't really care what the council thinks." She said her eyes searching mine.

"Well you should of all people should." I said cutting the tape.

"Me of all people?"

My answer was to look at the scars on her arm, the ones she hated so much and I as so very responsible for.

"What happened to you that night?" she asked. She'd obviously noticed me staring.

"I can't tell you Tani." I said softly.

"Because you don't want to, or you're not allowed?" she asked. I could tell by her tone that she really wanted this information, but was trying not to show it.

"Because I don't know." I said honestly brushing my thumb over one of the scars. I expected her to pull away from me but she didn't. "I don't remember."

"What do you think happened?"

"I don't know." I said honestly. "What I do know is that you shouldn't have been out there that night. You got hurt and that it's my fault."

She hesitated.

"Whatever I'm not supposed to ask you about. It's happening to Alex, isn't it?"

I didn't answer. I wanted to lie and tell her everything was fine but I couldn't. Not when she was looking at me with those eyes. They were beautiful, but they were also sad, and I could tell she knew something was happening to him that she couldn't stop.

"You're not going to tell me, are you?" she asked eventually after a sigh.

"No." I said, hating myself for it.

"Why?"

"Because you're safer if you don't know."

"I don't care." She said fiercely.

"I do." I said softly.

"Why do you get to decide this for me?" she asked and I could tell she was starting to get angry.

I shook my head and let go of her wrist.

"You don't understand." I muttered turning and putting the tape away for an excuse not to look at her.

"I don't have to." She said. "I can see it. Whatever's happening to him, it's what happened to you. You think I don't remember?" she asked. "Do you really think I haven't noticed what's going on?"

Again I didn't respond.

"I don't want to lose my best friend again." She said quietly. "I don't want to lose Alex like I lost you."

She sounded so upset, I couldn't help but look at her no matter how difficult it was for me. It didn't seem hard for her though, her gaze didn't waver. She was looking at me as if she was daring me to say that she was wrong.

Just as it always did when I was around her, my restraint was starting to break. I stepped closer to her and placed a hand on the side of her face, not caring how much harder this would make staying away from her.

"You could never lose me." I said softly.

She blushed and turned away and as she did, something caught my attention. Her braid had slipped and I spotted it, the scar Rachel had mentioned.

It was faint, it must have happened years ago, but the sight the jagged, crescent shaped mark made my blood run cold.

"Tani." I said my voice low but it was shaking. I willed myself to keep calm as I brushed back her hair, running the tips of my fingers over the scar. There was no doubt in my mind what it was, but it couldn't be.

She didn't answer, but winced obviously realizing I'd seen it.

"Tani." I repeated my voice stronger now. "How did you get this scar?"

"You wouldn't believe me." She said shaking her head trying move away from me but I held her in place.

"You have to tell me." I said. "When did this happen?"

She looked up, her eyes searching mine obviously wondering if I would believe her, and I knew instantly we were thinking of the same thing.

"The night in the woods." She said softly looking down. My hand was still resting on her cheek and she seemed to gain a sort of comfort from this, because leaned towards it slightly as her eyes shut. "After you disappeared. I went looking for you and then," her voice trembled. "He, it, whatever that thing was just stepped out of the trees."

She shook her head, tears slipping from her closed eyes, and I held her face between my hands horrified, as she continued to speak.

"I tried to run but he, it's faster than anything I've ever seen. Jason you wouldn't understand it-"

"I know." I said softly and her eyes met mine.

"Well, like I said. After I went looking for you, that thing found me, and the next thing I knew, it had grabbed me and, and."

But she couldn't bring herself to say it and I couldn't blame her. How many times had I seen it? The monsters grabbing on to people, sinking their teeth into them, their screams of pain as the venom entered their body.

Fear coursed through me as I realized what had happened, how close Tani had come to being another one of the bodies the pack had found.

"How are you still alive?" I whispered confused, but forcing myself to remain calm.

She didn't respond at first, and I didn't know what she was doing. She pulled herself out of my grip and reached for her book bag which Rachel had brought her from the girls locker room.

"Tani, what are you-" I started but she unzipped it and pulled out her sketch book, opening to a page where I saw the profile of an animal sketched with such detail, it almost looked like a photograph. The wolf had dark eyes that stared fiercely off the page and I realized with a jolt, that I was looking at myself.

While I knew Tani hated people looking through her personal sketchbook, she didn't look embarrassed. Her expression was hard to read, though her gaze was steady as she watched me for a reaction.

"You've seen it too." she said evenly.

"It hurt you." I said looking away from her, disgusted with myself.

"It saved me." She said softly and I felt a shock go through me.

"Saved you?" I asked, surprised into looking back at her. "But I thought," I said hardly able to get it out. "The scars, isn't that how you got them? You were attacked…"

"It didn't attack me." She said indignantly. "Its claws caught me as it tore that thing off me and chased after it as it ran away, but if it hadn't been there…" she hesitated as if she didn't want to finish her sentence, but after a moment, she seemed to regain her nerve. "If it hadn't been there. I'd be dead."

"It didn't attack you?" I asked softly realization flooding through me. The world felt like it was spinning and I had to sit down.

"It's the only reason I'm alive."

As she spoke, it was as if each word she said were a reprieve, freeing me from a guilt that had been weighing so heavily on me for so long, I hadn't realized just how painful it had been until it was starting to lift.

With this revelation came with many others as the events from that night finally started to make sense. So, this was the reason I'd first phased out of nowhere. It had been triggered by the vampire that was in the woods that night. I didn't lose control and attack her. I'd been protecting her…

For so long I thought if Tani had found out I was the monster that had hurt her that she'd never forgive me, but she didn't seem to hate the wolf at all and it opened a world of possibilities.

If I hadn't attacked her even when I'd been totally out of control, if I'd been aware enough to try to protect her, well, that changed everything. I had learned control now. Was it possible to be around her? For her to be safe?

"I know it sounds crazy." She said softly. "But as horrifying as that night had been. Part of me has always wanted to see it again." She shook her head. "It might seem insane, but I never got to say thank you."

She let out a slight laugh.

"You probably think I'm nuts for wanting to talk to a wolf, but I know it would understand me."

"You're not afraid of it?" I asked quietly and she looked at me in surprise.

"Why would I be afraid?"

"Because it hurt you. You hate your scars."

"It protected me." She said shaking her head. She seemed adamant to defend it. "You wouldn't understand. If you'd seen the way it was looking at me."

"So you forgive it?" I asked quickly.

"Forgive it?" she asked sounding confused. "For what?"

"For hurting you."

"I was never angry. Jason, it saved my life. Why would I be-"

But the next thing I knew, I'd stood and pulled her into a hug.

"Jason, what are you doing?" she asked going stiff but I pulled her closer.

"I'm sorry Tani." I said quietly closing my eyes and resting my chin on her head like I had when we were little. "I'm sorry about everything. Everything that happened to you and all the stuff that I did. I don't expect you to forgive me I just…"

But I let my voice fade as I felt her arms wrap around me and her head lean against my chest.

"I'm glad you're home Tan." I said pulling her closer to me but she didn't complain. "I missed you."

"I missed you too." She mumbled into my shirt.


	13. Chapter 13

Tpov

I wasn't exactly sure what had happened between Jason and I when he'd realized what had happened to me that night in the woods, but something had changed between us. I knew he wasn't going to tell me why, but suddenly, he wasn't hesitant to talk to me anymore. He no longer avoided looking at me in the halls, often times he'd actually walk me to my classes. It was like we were kids again when I'd just started school and before I knew it, we were friends.

"So." He said looking down at me as he leaned against the row of lockers on the wall and I opened mine. "You excited for this weekend?"

It was the Friday before our trip to Seattle, and we'd spent the last hour in study hall talking about it.

"Yeah," I said grabbing my math text book and feeling a bit awkward. People kept looking at Jason and I as they passed us in the hallway, clearly wondering why Jason, one of the most popular people in school and a senior was talking to the quiet girl who wasn't even in his year. It didn't seem to bother him though, he either didn't notice or didn't care because he didn't look away from me. "Hopefully Abigale feels better by tomorrow."

She and I were supposed to partner tomorrow, but she hadn't come to school today. Apparently, her whole family had gotten the flu.

"Well in the likely event that she doesn't." he said as I closed my locker. "You want to work with me?"

It shut with a metallic thud and I shouldered my book bag.

"I thought you were partnered with Jackson?" I asked confused and he shrugged.

"I was but he broke his ankle on Monday. He's still on crutches so he's not going."

"Oh." I said a little surprised. "Yeah, I guess walking around the city would be difficult."

"So, you want to work together?" he asked and I felt my heart skip a beat.

I bit my lip and hesitated feeling a little uncertain, but he smiled and I couldn't help myself. I smiled too.

"Yeah, ok."

"Great." He said looking pleased. "I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Yeah."

He smiled at me one last time before spotting his friend Chase and catching up with him in the hall as they walked to their next class. Chase grinned and launched into a story which caused Jason to laugh. I watched him go feeling unaccountably excited. It was the same feeling I used to get when I was a kid and realized it was almost time for one of my classes with him, or I when he was coming over to hang out. Things had been so weird between us when I first got back I'd forgotten how much fun I'd had spending time with him growing up. Now that he wasn't acting so weird and quiet, it felt like I had my best friend back.

I hugged my textbook closer to myself and smiled, it was nice to see him happy again.

"Earth to Tani…"

"What?" I asked distracted to see Alex standing next to me obviously waiting to walk with me to our next class.

"You zoned out again." He said amused. "What are you staring at?"

"Nothing." I said but he glanced down the hall where he spotted Jason and smirked.

"Sure." He said knowingly. "But you can stare at Jason later, we've got to get to math."

We joined the crowd of students walking through the halls towards the opposite side of the school.

"So, what's going on with you two anyways?" he asked looking down at me with interest.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh c'mon Tani." He said in exasperation as we took our usual seats in the back of the class. "Even you're not that oblivious. You guys have been talking all week."

"We're friends."

"Apparently."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked feeling my cheeks burn and he considered me for a moment before shrugging.

"Never mind."

He turned towards the board and started working on the warm up problems and I watched him for a bit, uncertain if I wanted to press the point. I decided not to.

"So what are your plans for this weekend?" I asked as we finished the last of the five problems and he pulled out one of his favorite comics, a mini-series about a teenager who'd accidentally swallowed a beaker of chemicals that made him invisible.

"You mean besides work?" he asked and I nodded.

"Well, you're going to be out of town, so I was thinking about asking Nona to do something."

"Like what?" I asked curiously.

"I dunno," he said with a shrug but I noticed he looked a little nervous. "I've never really spent a lot of time with her without you. What do you think we should do?"

"Well I know there's a huge sale at the mall a couple towns over she wanted to go to. I was supposed to go with her but the field trip got in the way. You could take her there."

"Alright," he said with a grin. "Thanks for the advice."

"No problem."

I watched as he pulled out his phone and typed a text to Nona once again feeling a little conflicted. I was happy for him, but if he and Nona started spending more time together without me…

I turned back to my paper as the bell rang and our teacher walked into class, trying not to think about what this would mean for me. What if they got like Nona's friends and their boyfriends and spent all of their time together. Then what would I do?

Strangely enough, I thought the one person who might be able to understand how I felt was Jason. He had more friends than I did, but they were all dating someone. If Nona and Alex got like his friends did, well, we'd be in the same boat.

'Maybe I'll just hang out with him.' I thought vaguely as the lecture started.

…..

Before I knew, Saturday had arrived and I found myself walking around the city with Jason. As he predicted, neither of our partners had made it which meant we had the day to ourselves.

"You are so short." He said laughing as I struggled to get a good angle for one of the pieces of street art we were looking for our assignment. We were supposed to be taking pictures of different styles of art we saw in the city but I was having trouble.

"Shut up." I complained simultaneously trying to jump and take the picture over the crowds of people walking through the city.

"Why don't I just take it?" he asked amused.

"Because." I said stubbornly with no real reason to back it up.

"Because what? It makes too much sense?"

"I can do anything a tall person can do."

"Except take a picture that isn't blurry."

"Fine." I said in defeat after the fifth attempt and getting nothing. I placed my phone in his out stretched hand and he easily took the picture.

"Wasn't that easier?" he asked with a trace of a smirk at the corner of his lips.

"I could have done it without you."

"Sure." He said in a pacifying tone that hinted at disbelief and I felt a stab of irritation go through me.

"I could have." I insisted.

"Yeah, yeah, strong independent artist I get it." he said amused. "But can we move on to the next one? You've kept us here for ten minutes."

"Fine." I said rolling my eyes

We walked across the street with the crowd and Jason looked around with interest.

"So, what are we looking for next?" he asked curiously and I looked at our worksheet.

"We need to find a piece influenced by the impressionists." I said looking at objective number seven on our list. "I don't think that will be too hard, not if-"

But before I could finish my sentence, I smacked into something and almost lost my balance.

"Sorry," I started automatically looking at the man who'd spilled coffee all over his suit. "I didn't see-"

"Watch where you're going!" he snarled pushing me roughly away from him.

He reached for me and looked as if he were about to shout again, but his arm was caught by Jason who grabbed the man, lifted him as easily as if he were a small sack of onions, and tossed him into a nearby dumpster.

"You were saying?" Jason asked casually, as if he'd done nothing more than toss out an old pair of shoes.

I looked at Jason in shock, then back at the man who looked a little disoriented as he stumbled out of the dumpster, as if he wasn't quite sure how he'd gotten there.

"What?" Jason asked and I hesitated.

"You just… threw someone away."

"He was rude to you." he said with a shrug as if this cleared the matter.

"Yes, but you can't just toss people in dumpsters!" I said indignantly.

"I think we've just established that I can." He said with a shrug. "Anyone else you want me to throw away while I'm at it?" he continued grinning and I couldn't help it. I smiled back.

"No." I said turning away from him and starting to walk to the next street, still grinning slightly. "I think we're good."

The next two hours passed without incident and we finished our worksheet much earlier than our teacher expected. We had another hour and a half before we had to meet up with the rest of the class so Jason and I decided to spend the remaining time in a coffee shop near the place where the buses would pick us up.

We spent most of the time just talking. He wanted to know what life had been like in California for me and I was surprised to see how genuinely interested he seemed to be in this. I'd forgotten how easy to talk to he was. It was different than talking to Alex though admittedly, I wasn't sure why. Alex was my best friend after all, and I'd known him for years, but there was just something different about someone you'd known for a long time, and someone who you'd known all your life. With Alex, things were fun but a bit hectic. We always had to be doing something. This didn't matter much because we had a lot of common interests, most of them dorky, so we never really ran out of things we enjoyed to do, but it wasn't that way with Jason. It didn't matter if we didn't have anything to do but talk, I'd always been able to talk to him for hours and not get bored, or if we didn't have anything to talk about, it didn't matter. We could do nothing and I still didn't mind. Even as kids when I'd be drawing or reading and he'd be fixing his outdoor gear, we didn't have to be doing the same thing, but I'd always preferred it when Jason was around.

"So." He said after I'd finished a story about my friends and I taking part in a mural project in the city that my school had been located. "Leave any boys broken hearted when you moved back to the Res?"

"I think we've had enough questions about me." I said evasively. I wasn't sure why, but I was a bit afraid to discuss that question with him. "Alex told me you broke quite a few hearts yourself while I was gone."

"I don't know if you'd call it heart breaking." He said shrugging. "Mostly just losing interest."

"Haven't found the one yet?" I asked smirking at him and he smiled as if he knew something I didn't.

"I never said that."

"I'm guessing you're not going to tell me what you mean by that."

"Nope."

"Why not?" I asked feeling a bit disappointed. Despite our newly repaired friendship, Jason was still extremely guarded about personal information. I was trying to tell myself that it would take time to heal everything that had happened, and not to get my hopes up, but I couldn't help but feel just a little upset about it. When we were younger we used to tell each other everything. He was much more cryptic than he used to be, and less carefree, but overall, he was the same Jason I remembered. The boy he'd been before the death of his parents, even if he was a lot older now.

"We'll see how things turn out." He said and I frowned.

"Can I ask you one thing though, something that you will answer."

"That depends on what it is." He said hesitantly.

"Alex said you were keeping yourself away from me when I got back. Is that true?"

He hesitated for a moment, but then nodded.

"Why?" I asked.

"I thought that was what you wanted." He said frowning. "Wasn't it?"

So he really had been doing it for me…

"I'm not really sure what I wanted." I said quietly. "I thought I knew at the time, but I think I was just confused."

"What do you want now?" he asked and I thought I heard something like hope behind his tone though it was hard to tell.

"I want to be friends again." I said honestly. "I like having you back in my life."

"I like it too."

I looked down at my cup and smiled. I could feel his eyes on me.

"We should probably get going." I said glancing at my phone for the time. "We're supposed to meet up with everyone in a few minutes."

"Alright." He said and together we stood up from table and stepped out onto the side walk.

I was surprised but couldn't help my heart skipping happily when he put his arm around my shoulders as we walked back to the busses together.

"Do you want to do something sometime?" he asked and I looked up at him in surprise.

"Do something?"

"Yeah. Like, hang out." He said casually, but I felt butterflies fill my stomach.

"Sure." I said trying to wrestle the sudden euphoric feeling I was getting back into a more appropriate emotion. "What did you want to do?"

"You have anything in mind?"

"Well." I said a little hesitantly wondering if I had the guts to ask. "Alex says you and your friends go cliff diving a lot."

He stopped and looked down at me in surprise.

"You want to go cliff diving?" he asked looking at me as if he wasn't sure he'd heard me correctly. "You?"

"Yeah. What's so surprising about that? I've never been before." I said frowning and he laughed.

"Nothing, it's just, you've never really struck me as the thrill-seeking type."

"Why do I feel like you just called me boring?" I asked sourly and he laughed again.

"You're not boring." He said amused pulling me closer. "But sure, if you want to go I'll take you. The weather is supposed to be good next weekend, we can go then."

We met up with the rest of the class, his arm still around me, and I noticed several people, especially the girls, were looking at us.

I had intended to draw on the ride back, but ended up talking to Jason the whole time. Though the trip took over four hours, I found myself a little disappointed as we pulled into the parking lot. It had gone so fast…

We stayed in the parking lot, talking for several minutes as the sun sank lower and lower but when the last car had pulled away I found it hard to think up any more excuses to stay.

"I should probably call Alex." I said regretfully. He was my ride home for the day.

"He spent the day with your cousin, didn't he?"

"Yeah," I said grinning. "He probably regrets agreeing to pick me up now."

"I could give you a lift if you want." He offered pulling out a set of keys. "I've got my grandfather's car."

"I dunno," I said uncertainly. "I feel bad making Alex promise and then bailing on him at the last second."

"You really think he's going to complain if he gets to spend more time with Nona?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

"Good point."

"C'mon." he said gesturing for me to follow him and after quick text to Alex, I jogged after him.

The ride home didn't take long and the next thing I knew, Jason had walked me to my door.

"Well," he said as I tried to think of an excuse to delay going inside. "I guess this is it."

"Yeah." I said still trying to think of anything I could say to draw the conversation out. "Today was fun."

"Yeah, I had a good time. I'm not sure I actually learned anything, but you seemed to know what you were talking about."

I grinned.

"Well, it's late," he said glancing up at the now dark sky. "I should probably get going."

"You don't have to leave yet if you don't want to." I said quickly. "You could come in and hang out for a bit if you wanted."

He looked surprised, but just as he was about to respond, there was a buzzing from his pocket and he checked his phone.

"I can't." he said looking a little disappointed. "Something just came up."

"What is it?"

He hesitated and I sighed.

"You can't tell me? Can you?"

"No sorry."

"Alright. I guess I'll see you at school."

"Yeah."

He stood there for a moment, looking as if he wanted to say something and I waited, but nothing came out.

"I'll see you around Tan." He said quietly and made his way back towards his car.

I watched him and waited until I could no longer see it's lights moving down the street.

Feeling confused and more than a little let down, I opened the door and stepped inside to see Nona and Alex in the living room surrounded by several boxes.

"What is going on in here?" I asked looking around curiously.

"The mall had a comic book store." Nona said brightly and I saw she was holding an issue that was brightly colored with pinks, purples, reds. Judging by the cover art, I was guessing it was a romance. "A bunch of stuff was on sale so Alex got me a few I would like. I had no idea there were so many different types of comics. I thought they were all dorky super heroes running around in their underwear. Why didn't you tell me?"

"You told me comics were childish."

"She just hadn't found the right ones." Alex said pleasantly. "Hey Tan. We're going through my collection to see if she wants to read any of them. Want to help?"

"Sure." I said grinning.

I'd just sat next to them when I heard a timer go off in the kitchen.

"That'll be the brownies." Nona said excitedly.

"You guys made brownies?"

"Yeah. Alex said he's never baked before so I'm teaching him."

"I'll go get them." Alex said getting to his feet. "Tani, see if you can find the first edition of 'Time Twister Gals'. You liked that one, Nona probably will too."

"Alright." I said starting to sift through the comics while Alex made his way to the kitchen.

I noticed her staring after him and felt a little amused.

"So, first Star Wars, now you're reading comics. Have I stumbled into a parallel dimension? Or do you really like Alex that much?"

"Oh shut up." She said her cheeks going red. "Some of them are really cool. And besides you're one to talk."

"What do you mean?"

"Remind me who gave you a ride home tonight." She said smirking.

It was my turn to blush.

"So?" I asked looking away from her and going through the boxes again. "Jason was just being nice."

"Really?" she asked smugly.

"Yeah."

"You realize that you're the only girl he really talks to right?"

"We're friends." I said defensively. "We've known each other our whole lives."

"You keep telling yourself that." She said mildly with a sly smile.


	14. Chapter 14

Sorry it's been a while since I've updated this story. Hopefully people are still interested in reading. Hope you like the new chapter!

~secrethalfblood

Jpov

As much as I would have liked it to, time didn't stand still when I had been with Tani in the city. While not long ago, a day like today could only have happened in my dreams, I was brought to a much harsher reality when I got home.

I stepped through the front door to see that the lights were on and the entire pack was standing around the dining room table. A map had been spread over it and I noticed Sam was with them.

"Chase said you think there was an attack?" I asked Sam. He'd bent over the table looking over the map, but turned to face me as I approached them. By his lack of presence, I could only assume my grandfather had gone to bed for the night.

"Yeah. Two people. Campers in the National Park not too far from here. They checked in at the ranger's station, a few days passed and no one had heard from them. Eventually a search party was formed and when they found them, they'd been dead for days. Cause of death-"

"Bodies drained of blood." I finished for him quietly and he nodded. I felt a flash of anger go through me and looked around at the others. As usual, Lewis looked the angriest with Chase not far behind. Aster looked a little disgusted.

"How'd you find out about this?" I asked glancing at the map myself.

"I'm friends with the ranger who was on duty when they were found. He keeps me posted about things like this. Strange disappearances or deaths. Thought it might be a useful contact if there were any bloodsuckers creeping around in the area."

"Are we sure it's a vamp though?" Aster asked looking uncertain. "How do we know it's not some wack-job running around in the woods losing his mind?"

I knew why he was asking this. Being the youngest and most recent to start phasing, he still had trouble adjusting to pack life every once and a while. Most of the time when we ran into a situation like this, he didn't like to admit to himself that vampires were most likely the cause. He'd look for any excuse to blame it on something else and although part of me couldn't blame him, the sympathy I felt for him was limited. We all had to face reality at some point. When you knew the truth about the world, you were going to see stuff like this happen.

"Isolated victims, no evidence of the killer, bodies drained of blood. What more do you need?" Lewis asked raising an eyebrow.

"It doesn't totally follow the bloodsuckers' MO though." Aster continued stubbornly. "Don't they have a code? People aren't supposed to find the bodies. It draws attention to them."

"That and they know we're around here." I said crossing my arms over my chest and looking at the map. They'd circled the location of the bodies that had been found. It was less than thirty miles from the reservation. For a wolf, or a vampire, that was nothing. "Most vamps avoid us if they can help it, and if they do kill someone around here, they try very hard to cover it up."

"So you don't think it was a vampire that killed them then?" Chase asked frowning and I shook my head.

"No, it probably was. It's just weird. It seems like this one doesn't care if the bodies were found."

Sam caught my eye and while I knew what he was thinking, I decided not to bring it up hoping I wouldn't have to.

"But that doesn't make any sense." Chase said frowning and I was relieved to see that none of them had noticed the silent exchange between Sam and I. "Don't the vamps have some sort of government? I thought that Italian family kept them somewhat controlled. They wouldn't want them finding out bodies had been discovered. Seems like a stupid risk."

"Not if they were trying to send a message." Sam said quietly and I shot him a look, but it seemed that was all he was going to say.

"A message?" Lewis frowned. "A message to who? Most of the world doesn't believe they exist."

No one answered this, though I was pretty sure I knew exactly who Sam was thinking of.

"What do you want to do?"

It was Chase who'd asked, and I saw that all eyes were on me.

"You said you were friends with the ranger?" I asked looking at Sam who nodded. "Think he'd be up for a meeting? He might be able to give us more information in person."

"I think so." Sam said a little uncertainly. "He might wonder why I care so much, or why I brought an eighteen-year-old with me to talk to him, but I'm sure we can think of some excuse on the way."

"Alright. Lewis, Chase," they looked at me. "You two go to where the bodies were found. See if you can find any evidence of bloodsuckers. Aster, you stay here and do a sweep of the reservation. Let me know if you find _anything_ suspicious anywhere close to home. I'll go with Sam to the ranger's station to see if we can get any more details on what might have happened."

"Alright." They said in unison, each moving towards the backdoor and stepping out into the night.

We waited until they were out of ear shot before we spoke. He was the first to break the silence, and when he did, he sounded worried.

"You should have told them."

"There's no point in scaring them." I said shaking my head and avoiding his gaze. "It's been years."

"All the more reason it would want to catch your attention if it was back."

"Why would it come back?" I asked darkly. "What purpose could it possibly have? I'm not alone anymore."

"Don't ask me to think like a bloodsucker." He said in disgust. "They're not human. They don't think like we do. But if you ask me the fact that you're not alone anymore might be exactly the reason it came back."

"Why, you think the vampire has some sort of death wish or something?"

He shrugged.

"I can't tell you what goes through a vampire's mind. All I know is that while some of them, like the Cullens, try and cling to what little humanity they have left, others have it burned out of them completely when they go through the change. They don't see the world as the world anymore. They see it as a hunting ground. Some of them even get bored and spend their time looking for _interesting_ prey." Venom entered his tone as he said this. "It said it wasn't finished with you. You were alone before, now it's got all sorts of people to hang over you. All of them are leverage."

"The pack can handle themselves." I said trying to dismiss with his theory, the creeping sense of unease that was spreading through me. I had no success on either front.

"True." He agreed. "But what about the people who aren't in the pack? Alex has yet to phase, and it could be dangerous if he stumbles into vampire who's fought with wolves before, knows what to look for and how to fight them. And what about the girls?"

I hesitated.

"Why would it care about them?" I asked and at this anger flashed across his features.

"Don't be naïve Jason, what's the most effective thing to attack when you want to hurt someone? Go after the people they love."

"We don't know if it's back." I said stubbornly.

"Can you afford to assume it's not?"

I didn't answer this, mainly because I was afraid to. Unbidden and unwelcome thoughts forced themselves to the front of my mind, prominent among them, the fact that Tani had already had a run in with a vampire. One she'd barely survived.

"We should get going." I said with avoiding his eye. "Hopefully your friend can give us information quickly enough that we can make it back before dawn."

He didn't respond and I could tell he was angry.

"I'll tell the others we should increase patrols until we get to the bottom of this. Keep an eye out for anything suspicious."

"You should tell them everything."

"Not until we're sure." I said stubbornly and while he made a noise of frustration, he did nothing more.

Instead, he gestured for me to follow him to the front door. We stepped outside and walked towards his car.

"Tiff's going to be disappointed." He said putting his key in the ignition as I dropped into the passenger seat. "She was hoping I'd be home in time to read her a story before she went to bed."

I wasn't really sure what to say to this so I didn't respond. It was strange to think that Sam used to be in my place, tracking vampires and trying to keep everyone on the reservation safe. I knew about his past, but it was hard to see a husband and father going out every night looking for monsters. Even stranger was the thought that one day I might be the one who'd moved on, helping a new generation, that this nightmare might no longer be my life.

"You'll get through it." he said as the car's engine rumbled into life and he backed out of the driveway. It was almost as if he'd known was I was thinking. "One day all this death and violence will be nothing more than a dark chapter of your past in an otherwise happy life."

"Doesn't feel like it." I said quietly. Sometimes it felt like the only way out was death by vampire.

"Maybe not right now. But it'll be worth it."

"What will?"

"The rest of your life. So many people spend so much of it uncertain if they'll ever find the person they're meant to be with. That's one thing you'll never have to wonder about."

I expected this to depress me, but I found it didn't. I thought back to earlier today, to how much fun I'd had walking around the city with Tani, hardly noticing as hours slipped by, perfectly content just to spend it with her and her alone. I smiled slightly.

"Guess not." I said looking out the window as we pulled out onto the street.

Tpov

The weekend after the field trip passed pretty normally. The next thing I knew it was Monday again, and Alex and I were sitting in history together in the back of the class. We were supposed to be brain storming ideas for our end of quarter project, but I was actually sketching character concepts for an idea he'd had for a graphic novel.

"What I don't get." I said adding an extra pair of arms to the vaguely humanoid body under his watchful eye. "Is even if a Martian has telepathic powers, wouldn't there still be a language barrier when he gets to earth? I mean, isn't it a little optimistic just to assume an alien race just happens to know English, or any language from earth for that matter?"

"You're missing the point." He said sounding frustrated. "His powers make it so they can understand him, and him them. When it comes to thoughts anyways. But yeah, speaking out loud they probably couldn't communicate."

"But would a Martian's telepathic power work on a human brain?" I pressed. "I mean, what are the odds that thought patterns or even the biological make up of an alien vs. human mind would be even remotely the same?"

"Tani, could you stop stepping on my dreams?" he asked sourly.

"I'm the one bringing 'Solar Saul' to life." I pointed out retracing an antenna and he frowned.

"Yeah, and you could make him a little less creepy looking."

I glanced at him, slightly amused.

"He's an alien. What did you expect? A chibi or something?"

"I dunno, I hadn't thought it through." He mused and I rolled my eyes. "Speaking of creepy though, some dude was asking about you at work."

"What do you mean creepy?" I asked raising an eyebrow. "What was he like old or something?"

Alex worked at the local grocery store so he dealt with his fair share of strange people. As he put it, 'even weirdos gotta eat.'

"I dunno." He said frowning. "You know now that I think about it, I really couldn't tell how old he was, but definitely not our age. There was just something about him though." He shuddered and I saw something dark flash behind his eyes. "Something that I just didn't trust."

"How'd he know me?"

"That's the weird thing. I don't think he did."

"Then how'd you know he was talking about me?"

"Who else could 'Jason's tiny girlfriend be?'" he asked and I frowned.

Well, he had a point.

I felt a pair of eyes on me and looked up to see Lewis looking in our direction. He and his girlfriend Sarah were in a lot of our classes and although they always worked together, I often caught him staring at Alex and I.

"So, think this guy was a friend of Jason's?" I asked looking away from Lewis feeling uncomfortable.

"It didn't sound like it."

"So then why would he care about me? What did he want?"

"I've no idea." He said shrugging. "Before I could ask Sam Uley and his wife walked in to pick up an order and when I looked back, the dude was gone."

Silence passed between us for a moment in which I got to work on Saul's girlfriend, 'Sally Saturn,' and Alex continued to watch.

"So now that we're on the subject…" he started hesitantly as I drew rings around Sally's ponytail.

"What subject?" I asked vaguely, too immersed in sketching to pay much attention to what he was saying.

"You and Jason."

This did catch my attention.

"You are just as bad as Nona." I said looking up from my sketch.

"Do you like him?"

"I kind of have to like him." I said shrugging. "That's what happens when you've known someone since before your first birthday."

"You know what I mean." He said rolling his eyes and I looked at him confused. "I mean _like_ like." He continued, starting to sound exasperated. "You know, as in, you find him of the datable variety."

"Why do you keep saying stuff like that?"

"Because you're oblivious and won't figure it out on your own."

"Figure what out?"

"That you're attracted to someone."

"Your confidence in my emotional intelligence is utterly astounding." I said flatly and he looked frustrated. "Besides, don't you think if I liked someone I would know?"

"Honestly, I think you'd be the last one to figure it out. Are you seriously telling me you don't think he's attractive?"

"Of course he's attractive, everyone knows that."

"I wasn't asking what everyone thinks. I was asking what you think, and not as an artist looking for something to draw." He added quickly, as if he knew the point I was about to make. "I mean just as a regular girl, looking at a guy. Pretend like you'd never met Jason before. What would you think?"

"I-" I started but had to cut myself short when I realized I didn't have an answer.

I tried to think of Jason as someone I'd never met before. A stranger making an impression on me for the first time but I failed. I'd had so many feelings surrounding him over the years, some of them so strong, it was impossible to forget them. I tried to think back to my first memory of him, how I'd felt when we'd first met but I couldn't find one. In almost all of my memories of him, which included some of my very first memories, he'd been my best friend. In indispensable person in my life.

"I… don't know." I said honestly, feeling a little surprised when as I realized this. Even as a kid he'd always been there. I couldn't think of a point in time where I hadn't known him. It was impossible to see him as a stranger.

Alex gave me an amused look.

"I thought artists were supposed to be expressive and free, not emotionally repressed."

"I am not repressed." I said uncertain as to why, but very offended by this. "And if you like him so much, why don't you ask him out?"

"I am comfortable enough in my own sexuality to admit when I know another male is attractive." He said unperturbed. "You on the other hand, get so spaced out, a bus load of male supermodels could break down in the school parking lot, and you'd be happy to sit here sketching away while the rest of the girls started a riot trying to beat each other outside."

"What's wrong with that?"

"What's wrong with that is you get so lost in your own head sometimes, I don't think you know how to get back." His smile had faded slightly and I could tell this was something he'd wanted to talk to me about for a while. "Sometimes I wonder if you'd rather live in the world as you create it in your art, rather than deal with it as it is. And that worries me."

"Why?"

"Because you and I both know you'd be more than happy to spend hours by yourself, in your own little world, and you wouldn't even notice it was happening unless someone came to get you." He frowned. "Sometimes you're so obsessed with capturing life on paper or with paint, it feels like you forget to live it."

The bell rang, and as we gathered our things, I started to wonder if Alex had a point. He said goodbye making his way towards Spanish, meeting up with some of his other friends in the hall and suddenly, I was very aware of the fact that I was walking towards art alone.

Did Alex have a point?

I glanced at the people around me in the hall, unable to find a single person I'd be comfortable starting a conversation with.

I hadn't made any friends since I'd gotten back to school. I tried to think of one time I'd talked to someone during class that wasn't him, but apart from the day Rachel and Sarah had ambushed me in gym, I couldn't come up with anything. I flipped through my sketch book, looking at all the things I'd drawn over the year. Classmates, objects in the class rooms, or just random things that had come to me when I was supposed to be paying attention to my teachers. How much time had I spent on this? Time I could have been actually talking to the people in here. The only people I talked to were Alex and Nona, the only "new" friend I'd made this year, was someone I'd known my entire life.

Did I get so distracted that I'd completely closed myself off?

"Too far Tani."

I jumped as I felt a hand on my shoulder looked up to see Jason who'd been walking the opposite direction from his locker. Only when he gestured back down the hall did I realize I'd walked right passed the art room. I'd been too busy looking through my sketches to notice.

"Oh. Thanks." I said feeling my stomach sink. I'd done it again...

"No problem" He said looking a little amused. "What's up?"

"Alex says I'm emotionally repressed."

He looked shocked for a second, then the corner of his mouth twitched as if he were trying not to smile.

"I'll be honest, I haven't heard that used as a conversation starter before," he said still obviously trying not to grin. "But sure, let's go with it. Points for originality by the way."

"You don't think that, do you?" I asked as we made our way towards the class.

"That you're emotionally repressed?" he asked with a slight laugh. "What does that even mean?"

We reached the door, but paused outside the room letting the other students walk passed us.

"He says I'd rather live in my own world then deal with the real one. That I use art as an escape into my own head."

"So? School is boring. If I had an imagination like yours I'd prefer to be there too instead of graphing parabolas."

"He thinks it's a bad thing. Like I don't understand feelings or something."

"Isn't he the one who buried his crush on your cousin for half his life?"

"That's not the point." I said shaking my head.

"Then what is? Why do you look so upset?"

"I dunno," I said quietly thinking about what Alex had said. "What if he's right? I don't want to wake up one day and realized I spent so much time living in my head, I forgot to do it in the real world."

He considered me for a moment, and again something Alex had said drifted into my mind. He was right, Jason was very attractive but that was something I'd always known, you couldn't draw someone and not notice something like that. I guess I'd spent so much time trying to hate him, then thinking of him as my childhood friend, that while objectively I knew he was handsome, I'd never really thought of him as someone being attracted to.

I started thinking about all the classes I'd taken in California, about facial symmetry in art and features that were considered most attractive. Jason fell into that category, that much was obvious, but as far as my opinion on it. I'd never really given it much thought.

But if I was honest with myself, if I really tried to look at him objectively…

"Tani?" He waved a hand in front of my face and I was brought back to the present.

"What?" I asked and he looked a little amused.

"You zoned out." He said with a laugh and I felt my cheeks go red.

'You did it again.' A voice in the back of my mind said.

I looked at Jason trying to ignore everything my brain wanted to say about him, how to draw him and how well he fit into the golden ratio, and just tried to look at him. As I did I felt my blush increase. Maybe Alex was right about more than one thing… My heart skipped a beat when I realized that I really did find Jason attractive.

I wasn't sure if realizing this was personal progress or a dangerous situation.

"You didn't hear what I said at all, did you?" Jason asked grinning at me.

"No, sorry." I said shaking my head. "What was it?"

"I said wouldn't worry too much about what Alex says."

"So you don't think I'm space case?"

"Oh no, you are." He said and I felt my heart sink. "You're the most distracted person I know. But why does that have to a be a bad thing?"

"I dunno," I started. "But that's what most people's complaint about me is isn't it? I get distracted and I ignore everything going on around me."

"There are times I wish I could." He said shrugging. His tone was hard to place, but his attitude had changed. He wasn't laughing anymore and I noticed he didn't seem to want to look at me. "Sometimes the world's an awful place, and if it wasn't, we wouldn't need creative types like you to bring out the beauty in it. Who cares if you see the world differently? It's what makes you you, it's what makes you different from everyone here."

"It doesn't bother you when I zone out?"

Again he shrugged and looked back at me.

"Not really."

"Why?"

"Because you're different." He said. "I don't mind waiting for you to come back to the real world when you're distracted, it's better than being around the millions of other boring people who are stuck in it."

A shock went through me and I felt like I wanted to say something, but I couldn't find the words.

"But." He continued and I felt a sudden sense of relief flood through me, though I wasn't sure why. "If you're really determined to have a life experience, we could ditch class and do something fun."

"My aunt and uncle would kill me if I got caught skipping."

"Not if you're with me." He said easily. "You could walk out the front door and no one would stop you."

"What would we even do?" I asked curious despite myself and he smiled.

"For once it's actually nice outside. I promised I'd take you cliff diving."

"Right now?"

"Why not?"

The bell rang throughout the halls and students started scrambling to get to their classes.

"Well?" he asked raising an eyebrow expectantly. "You want to go?"

I bit my lip and while he couldn't have looked more relax, I could feel his eyes on me and a nervous sort of excitement was starting to spread through me.

"Yeah." I said surprising myself as I said it but then smiling as I committed to the decision. "Yeah let's go."

"Alright." He said his grin returning and gestured for me to follow him towards the nearest exit.

We didn't talk as we walked but I felt my heart skip another beat when he put an arm around my shoulders. It shouldn't have, he used to do this all the time when we were kids and as we walked, I realized how often I'd been thinking about that lately when it came to Jason. How things had been when we were little. But as we kept moving and my heart rate continued to increase, it was becoming increasingly obvious to me that we weren't kids anymore.

I wasn't sure why this bothered me so much. I mean, it was obvious we weren't kids anymore, everyone had to grow up. But did things mean things would change between us?

"Jason?" I asked as we stepped out of the school. He was right it was nice day, warm with fluffy clouds in the light blue sky.

"Yeah?"

"Do you remember that day it was nice out and we went to the creek the summer before I started school?"

"Then one you where you ignored the whole time because you wanted to draw?" He asked when a slight laugh and I nodded. "Yeah."

"Do you remember what you said to me?" I asked not looking at him, but I could feel his eyes on me and I could tell he hesitated before answering.

"Yeah." He said eventually. "I do."

"Is that still true?" I asked quietly, not exactly sure why I was asking or if I wanted to know the answer.

"Yeah. It's still true."

It was hard to place his tone as he said this. He'd said it like it was a fact and nothing else, but there was something in his voice that made it seem like so much more and I felt that nervous energy going through me again. It was accompanied by a new feeling however, one I didn't expect but spurred me to say.

"Is that ever going to change?"

"I told you it wouldn't."

"Yeah but we were kids back then." I said stopping and looking up at him. "And everything that's happened-"

"Doesn't make it any less true." He said his gaze meeting mine. "I meant it then and I mean it now. You're the most important person in the world to me. And nothing is going to change that."


	15. Chapter 15

Tpov

By the time Jason and I had made it out of school and to the water it was early afternoon. A few people were on the beach below us, but we were the only ones on the cliffs when he pulled off the road to the diving point.

I stepped out of the car and glanced down at the waves that were crashing on to the rock face, wondering if this had really been a good idea. The wind had picked up since we left school and while the sky was still clear, it caught the sea spray and drops of water landed on my glasses.

"How high up are we?" I asked looking back at Jason who regarded me with amusement.

"It's less than twenty feet."

"That doesn't make it sound any better."

"We're not that high."

"This feels high."

"My friends and I jump from up there."

He gestured to a ledge about five stories above us father up on the cliff.

"Are you serious?" I asked my eyes going wide.

"Yeah."

"How are you not dead?"

He let out an amused laugh and grinned as if he knew something I didn't.

"We're tough."

"Suicidal more like." I muttered and he continued to look at me with an entertained expression. It was starting to irritate me.

"Having second thoughts?" he asked his voice shrewd as I glanced nervously down at the water.

"No." I answered stubbornly as my stomach clenched. That was really, _really_ far down.

"Are you lying?"

"Maybe."

He stood next to me and while I didn't take my eyes off the water, I was pretty sure it wasn't the drop that caused my heart rate to increase.

"You can't chicken out now Tan." He said calmly. As if we were talking about a drop of a couple feet rather than a couple floors.

"Why not?"

"'Cuz we're already here!"

"I have not jumped yet." I pointed out. "I can very much chicken out."

"It's not that high." He said in exasperation.

"Not for you. You're like sixteen feet tall!"

"Just jump."

"Not happening."

"It's fun."

"I don't think it will be."

"Do it."

"No!"

He crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his head slightly as he looked at me, apparently deciding how he wanted to handle the situation. The expression was one I was very familiar with, even if it hadn't seen it since elementary school, when he was trying to convince me to go into the deep part of the creek we'd always used to swim in.

"Don't you dare push me." I said remembering how this had ended last time.

He grinned.

"Three."

"Jason..."

"Two."

"I'm warning you…"

"One."

"Jason!" I shouted my eyes going wide and panic flooding through me as I felt his hand on my back. "No! Don't!"

I closed my eyes and tensed as I lurched forward. My heart shot into throat, but a shock went through me as I was caught and Jason collapsed with laugher.

"You are such a jerk." I complained trying to control my breathing and he released me. "Don't do that again."

"C'mon Tani." He said looking down at me reprovingly. "You really think I would push you? You still have your glasses on."

I touched them and realized he was right.

He reached out for them and took them off. Instantly the world blurred.

"How much can you see right now?" he asked with interest as I squinted and glanced around.

"Your face and fuzzy colors." I admitted giving up and focusing on him. "That's about it."

"Well, luckily you don't need to see to fall."

"Who said I was going to jump? When was that put back on the table?"

"Want me to go first?"

"Yes. That would give me time to steal the car and be half way home before you realized I was gone."

"You really don't want to jump?" he asked frowning and I shook my head.

"What if I go with you?"

"What do you mean?"

He grinned and I felt my eyes narrow.

"I don't like that look. What are you up to?"

His response was to pick me up and start walking towards the edge of the cliff.

"What are you doing?" I said my eyes going wide as it got closer.

He started picking up speed.

"Stop! Jason! I don't want-" but my words were drowned out by the roar of the air rushing passed us as he jumped off the cliff and we plummeted towards the water.

I shouted and clung to Jason for dear life as he let out an exhilarated shout, the next thing I knew, we struck the surface. The freezing water assaulted my skin and I let out a cry of surprise during which salt water flooded into my mouth. Lungs burning, I tried to kick to the surface but quickly realize I didn't know where that was. Just as I really started to panic, Jason's arms locked around me and I coughed as we broke through the surface.

"Jason!" I shouted between coughs and I heard him laugh as I simultaneously tried to pummel him and get out of his grip. "What the hell?"

He continued to laugh, apparently unaware I was hitting him as he let go of me.

"You are such an ass!" I said splashing water at him and starting to swim towards the shore, still fuming.

He made it back to the beach before me and was sitting, his arms resting on his knees, when I staggered on to the sand, water streaming off my clothes and from my hair.

"Hi Tani." He said with a playful smile, but his lip twitched and I could tell he was trying not to laugh.

"I don't like you."

"Oh will you relax?" he asked laying back on the sand looking completely at his ease.

I glowered at him.

"You were never going to jump if I didn't make you." He continued putting his hands behind his head and squinting up at the sun.

"Yeah, 'cuz I didn't want to."

"You wanted to. You were just too scared to. You just had to do it. Remember when our parents rented that cabin over Christmas when we were kids, and you were too afraid to go ice skating without holding on to me?"

"Yeah, and you left me stranded in the middle of that lake?" I asked irritated but sitting next to him.

"And you were fine."

"I don't know what I thought you'd be able to do if I fell through the ice." I muttered frowning. "Odds are if I fell you'd fall too."

"Yeah. And my mom yelled at me for an hour when we got home and she found out about it. The point is," He continued, ignoring my musing. "You had a great time that day after you got over your fear."

"So?"

"So, it's always been my job to get you to step outside your comfort zone."

"I think you mean force."

"Do you want to jump again or not?" he asked looking at me and I glanced back up at the cliff. I couldn't really see it that well, but I thought I could just make out the spot we'd jumped from. I expected the twinge of anxiety to go through me when I thought of jumping again, but it didn't.

I glanced at Jason who was looking at me as if he knew exactly what was going on in my head.

"If I say yes it doesn't prove anything." I said flatly and he smirked.

"Sure." He said getting to his feet.

I noticed a couple of girls who looked to be about college aged were looking over at him with interest, and while he seemed completely unaware of them, I was surprised to feel a twinge of irritation go through me.

What was that about?

It was driven from my mind however, when he offered a hand to help me up. I took it and together we walked towards the path that lead back up to the cliffs.

"So, if I jump without you this time, can we go up to where you and your friends jump from?" I asked curiously as we hit the base of the trail that lead back up to the diving points, and while I expected him to laugh, his expression surprised me. It was the same kind of look my father had given me, when I'd asked him if I could get a tattoo for my 16th birthday.

"No." He said stonily and I frowned.

"Why not? What happened to the whole stepping out of my comfort zone thing?"

"Maybe I'm selfish," he said with obvious sarcasm. "But I prefer my friends to be three dimensional. If you jumped from there you'd be a pancake."

"You and your friends do it." I pointed out.

"Yeah, because it's fun for us. It's death for you."

"How is it not death for you guys if it's death for me?" I asked raising an eyebrow at him.

"Will you just trust me on this?"

"Fine." I said realizing, not for the first time, that there were things about Jason and his friends that simply weren't going to be explained.

We continued to walk up the path in silence as I continued to think along this line. I'd been trying to tell myself to be patient. To remember that things were different between Jason and I than they had been growing up, no matter how familiar being around him lately felt. As much as I didn't want to admit it, there were things about him that had changed and I should let him tell me things when he was ready. If he ever was ready.

I felt a surge of disappointment go through me at this thought. I didn't like thinking like that. We'd known everything about each other when we were kids. What was going on with him that he couldn't tell me?

I glanced up at him but gained nothing from his expression. It was impossible to read and it was driving me crazy.

Finally, after a few minutes had passed, I couldn't take it anymore.

"Are you ever going to tell me?" I asked and he looked at me confused.

It was obvious he'd been entirely unaware of the debate that was battling within me.

"Tell you what?"

"Whatever is going on with you and your friends." I said then hesitated and added. "And Alex."

"I'm not sure." He said quietly and for the first time today, his relaxed attitude seemed to abandon him. "If I'm being totally honest, I'm not sure how I could keep it from you forever."

"So, you will tell me?"

"Probably eventually, yes."

"So why not tell me now?"

"Well, if you want the truth," he said with a sigh and again the look he gave me was hard to read. "I just really don't want to tell you."

"Why?" I asked confused.

"Because you've been through enough because of me." He answered sounding tired, and I thought back to the last time I'd seen Jason before I'd left the reservation. Everything that had happened to me that night.

"I don't want to put you through anything else," he said quietly looking away from me. "Not if I don't have to."

I, however, looked at him feeling a strange emotion going through me. It was like curiosity, but burned with an intensity I'd never experienced before. It was obvious Jason knew something about what had gone on that night, and I was surprised how badly I wanted to know what it was.

"What if I want to know?" I asked cautiously.

I wasn't sure what made me ask this. By all accounts I should have been happy he was trying to keep me out of it, how long had I spent trying to forget about that night? But as I continued to look at him, I realized how much I hated not knowing this about him. Being shut out of whatever part of his life this was. It felt wrong.

"I don't even want to know." He said darkly. "Why on earth would you? Why would you ever want to be involved in this?"

"'Cuz you are."

Maybe it didn't make sense, but a certainty was spreading through me, gaining strength with each passing moment I continued to look at him. All I knew was that whatever was going on with him, I wanted to be a part of it. It didn't matter what had happened to me, how terrified I'd been. I wanted to know, no matter what that might mean.

I couldn't quite figure out his expression when he looked down at me. It was as if he didn't want to hear what he'd just heard, but it made him happy at the same time.

"You realize I'm probably the worst thing that ever happened to you right?" he asked bluntly. I wasn't sure when we'd stopped walking, but his gaze was intense as he continued to look at me. "I don't think you realize how much better off you'd be if you'd lived next to someone else. Anyone else. Or if you'd just stayed in California."

His expression was strange, and it felt like he almost wanted me to agree with him.

"But I didn't want to stay in California." I said stubbornly and he shook his head as he looked away. "And I don't care if I'm better off or not," I continued almost angrily. "I want to be around you."

"But why?" he asked sounding frustrated looking at me as if he couldn't understand.

I knew Alex or Nona would have had an answer for him. Something eloquent that they'd analyzed about me over the years that had gone completely over my head, but I didn't. I just said what I knew.

"It's what I've always wanted." I said honestly.

Ever since I'd known Jason, I'd always wanted to be a part of his life. It was why I'd always followed him around as a kid. When I was too distracted to make room for anyone else, he was the one person I always made sure I was around. Maybe that was why I'd always been able to forgive him, no matter what he'd done. Maybe deep down I'd always known that where ever Jason was, and whatever he was doing, it was where I belonged.

I didn't say any of this out loud, but as usual he didn't need me to.

"Are you sure Tan?" he asked quietly. "Really sure? Because if you get involved with all of this, you can't go back." He hesitated before continuing. "You of all people should know what that means."

It was my turn to hesitate. Without really meaning to, I touched the scar just above my shoulder and his eyes darted towards it.

"You don't have to answer now." He said softly placing his hand over mine and gently removing it from the scar, but not letting it go. "Take some time to think about it and if you decide you don't ever want to know you won't have to. I'll make sure of that."

"But you'll tell me if I do?" I asked and his eyes met mine.

"If you ask me to." He hesitated. "Yes. I'll tell you. But only if you're sure."

"What do we do until then?" I asked a little uncertainly. "Just pretend like all of this, whatever it is, isn't going on?"

"We can do whatever you want." He said with a shrug.

"Why?" I asked a little confused. "What about you? What do you want?"

"I just want to be around you." he said quietly and I felt a shock go through me. I was suddenly extremely very aware of my heart beat, it was pounding so loudly I was almost sure he could hear it. And while his gaze met with mine, and I was certain he was telling the truth, I found it hard to believe.

"And you're ok with that? Doing whatever I want?"

He nodded and we continued to look at each other. I found it was difficult for me to think straight, my chest felt tight.

I wasn't sure what this feeling was that was going through me, and I wasn't sure I was ready to examine it. So instead, I looked up at the cliffs and grinned.

"I want to jump from where you and your friends jump."

He let a noise that sounded half irritated and half amused.

"Anything but that." He said and I laughed as he grabbed me and together, we plummeted back into the water.


	16. Chapter 16

Thank you for the reviews! They really mean a lot! Hope you enjoy the new chapters!

~secrethalfblood

Jpov

I expected Tani to want to go home after the water had gotten too rough to continue diving, but she didn't. Instead, we stayed out on the beach walking up and down the shore together until the sun started to sink. We sat at the edge of the water, surrounded by several patterns she'd drawn in the sand around us, watching it set on the horizon.

"How are you not cold?" she asked shivering. She was wearing my hoodie which she'd pulled her arms and legs into and I looked at her.

"Just not." I said shrugging. "Are you?"

"A little." She admitted.

I pulled her into my lap and wrapped my arms around her.

"Better?"

"Yeah." She said as I rested my chin on her head and I could tell she was smiling.

"Going back to school tomorrow is going to suck." She complained looking up at the orange and gold clouds drifting above us.

"Why?"

"Because, now I know I can leave class, every time I get bored I'll just want to ditch and hang out with you."

"I see how you are." I said ginning. "You just want to use me as a hall pass."

"Yes. I made friends with you since before I could walk, so I could shamelessly abuse the perks that came with it in high school."

"You truly are a devious master mind."

"Someone has to do it."

"It's always the quiet ones."

"Yeah, clearly I'm a public menace."

She shifted slightly leaning against me and continued to look out at the sunset, apparently lost in thought.

I didn't know how long we sat there, but when the sun was no longer visible I knew I had to get her home.

The drive back was too short and before I knew it, we were outside Nona's house.

"Thanks for letting me borrow your hoodie." She said starting to take it off but I shook my head.

"You can keep it."

"Really?" she asked surprised.

I nodded.

"Why?"

"Because I know you want to." I said amused and she smiled a little guiltily.

"It's really comfortable. Guys hoodies are so much better than girls."

"Then why don't you just buy guys hoodies?" I asked and her smile grew.

"Why buy them when I can steal yours?"

"I knew it. I knew girls did this on purpose. This is a conspiracy."

"Oh please." She said rolling her eyes. "Boys wouldn't let us take them all the time if they didn't like us having them."

"Why would I like giving you my clothes? I can't wear them if I do."

"Because I'm small and you think it's funny." She said holding up her arms where the sleeves were dangling past her hands for several inches.

"There might be some truth to that." I admitted and she gave me a smug look.

A couple seconds passed in silence in which she checked her phone for the time and looked a little disappointed.

"I should probably head in." she said glancing around at the darkness, but sounding as if she didn't want to. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, let me know if you want to play hooky again."

"Are you encouraging me to skip school?" she asked pretending to be astonished. "I thought everyone looked up to you now. What would the council say?"

"They'll get over it."

She smiled and gave me a hug which I returned.

"Thanks for taking me diving today." She said as she let go. "It was fun."

"No problem. Maybe next time we can go sky diving or something, if you're looking for another adventure."

"You going to push me out of the plane?"

"Don't worry, I'll wait until you've got the parachute on."

Her eyes went wide.

"I'd hope so. Otherwise I really would be a pancake."

"Yeah you should probably avoid that." I said amused. "I'll see you tomorrow Tan."

"See ya."

She waved as I walked back to the car, the sleeve of the ridiculously oversized hoodie flapping slightly as she did, and when I turned the ignition, she stepped into the house and closed the door.

I drove home lost in thought, but was quickly brought back to the present when I opened the front door to hear an excited giggle.

"JASON!"

Something small attached itself to my leg and I looked down to see Tiffany Uley hugging me.

"Hey Tiff. What are you doing here?" I asked picking her up and walking into the kitchen where my grandfather was sitting at the table.

"The Uley's needed a baby sitter." He said and I saw they'd been coloring together. "They were looking for you, but obviously you weren't here, so I got the job. Where have you been?"

"The beach." I said honestly.

"Did you go with your girlfriend?" Tiffany asked grumpily. "Is that why you never come over anymore?"

"What is she talking about Jason?" my grandfather asked frowning and I found myself in an awkward spot. I still hadn't told him about my imprinting, but before I could even try to come with some sort of explanation, Tiffany had continued.

"He's got a girlfriend now, like all the other boys." She said poking me in the side of the head. "And now he's ignoring me like the rest of them."

"Does he?" my grandfather asked with interest.

"She's not my girlfriend Tiff." I said setting her back in the chair next to my grandfather and she returned to coloring, apparently forgetting she was mad at me.

"But Daddy says you love her." She said grabbing a fist full of crayons and coloring with them all at once. "Like he loves Mommy. Like all the other boys. She has to be."

"She not." I said very aware my grandfather was looking at me.

"Something you want to tell me Jason? You know what, actually." He turned to Tiffany who was now choosing between two colors to write her name with. "Tiffany, who is this girl? What's her name?"

"I don't remember." She said vaguely, too set on writing the y in her name to pay him much attention. "It was weird. I've seen her though. She's really short."

"Well I wonder who that could be." He said sarcastically, smirking at me. "Anything you'd like to tell me Jason?"

"No actually, there isn't."

He rolled his eyes.

"You are so stubborn."

"Yeah, I wonder where I get it from." I muttered sarcastically and he grinned.

"Your mother certainly."

"So then we still have you to blame." I countered and he chuckled.

"Perhaps that's true. But if that's the case, it's even more of a mystery to me why Vitani ever put up with you. How long did you think you could keep this from me?"

But before I could answer this, there was a knock at the door.

"They're here!" Tiffany said excitedly bolting from her chair to the door, and opening it to see that Sam and Emily Uley were at the door.

"Mom! Dad!" she said giggling happily as Sam picked her up.

"How was she?" he asked looking down the hall in our direction as she hugged him, and looking surprised when his eyes landed on me. "Oh, hey Jason. Where've you been?"

"With his girlfriend." Tiffany said moodily and Emily smiled at me.

"Really?" Sam asked with interest.

"I'm going to bed." I said a little irritated at the way all three adults were smirking at me now.

"Wait!" Tiffany said wriggling to get out of her father's arms as I made my way to my room. "Jason, I forgot!"

"Forgot what?" Sam asked but letting her down all the same as she came running over to me and reached into her pocket.

"Your friend wanted me to give you something."

"My friend?" I asked confused as she held up something small, and I realized it was a chess piece. The queen. Something about it looked familiar.

What the hell?

"Tiff? Who gave this to you?" I asked confused while taking it and looking at it. "Was it one of the pack?"

"No, I don't know who he was, but he said he knew you. He said he wanted you to have it."

"Tiffany," Emily said her eyes going wide. "What did we tell you about talking to strangers?"

"He wasn't a stranger!" she insisted her eyes wide. "He knew Jason."

"Why did he want to give me this?" I asked confused and she shrugged.

"I dunno," she said, but she smiled in a satisfied way, apparently pleased with herself for having completed her task. "He gave it to me after school, before the bus picked me up."

"What did he look like?" I asked trying to think if there was anyone I knew that Tiffany wouldn't, but before she could answer, I heard Lewis's voice in my head.

' _Jason, you're going to want to see this._ '

"I've got to go." I said and ignoring the questions they fired after me, I stepped out the back door and immediately phased.

I hadn't realized where Lewis was until the time I reached him, and when I did, I was extremely confused.

"What's going on, what are you guys doing here?"

Lewis was with his girlfriend, Sarah, and they were both standing in the driveway of my parent's house. I continued to look around confused until I noticed a light was on inside.

"Did you guys go in?" I asked a little angrily. My grandfather hadn't resold the house when my parents died. Well, technically it was my house now, my parents had left it to me, but seeing as I was so young when they'd passed away, no one had lived here for years.

"You're kidding, right?" Lewis asked, obviously annoyed I had thought this. "I was just walking Sarah home when I noticed the light was on, and I knew for a fact you weren't there, and your grandfather is at home."

"Do you have any idea who might be in there?" Sarah asked nervously.

"No." I said flatly. "You two stay outside."

But just as I was about to move towards the house, I heard footsteps.

All three of us looked over our shoulders to see Aster and Chase appearing out of the night, running towards us.

"We heard Lewis call you." Chase explained looking worried. "What's going on?"

"Who's here?" Aster asked obviously noticing the light.

"That's what we were just discussing." Lewis said darkly.

"Aster, look around outside. Lewis, stay with Sarah. Chase, come with me." I said. They each nodded as I gestured for Chase to follow me and Aster took off.

"You got a key?" Chase asked as we stepped onto the porch, a beam of light hitting him through the front window.

"I haven't set foot in here in years." I said quietly. It felt strange to admit. "I doubt even my grandfather would know where a key is at this point."

"Well then how are we supposed to get in?" he asked.

"Someone already has," I said reaching for the door and finding it unlocked.

We stepped into the house and I looked around.

It looked pretty much exactly the same as I remembered it the time we'd repainted, all the pictures removed from the walls and furniture moved or covered up. I kept waiting for a rush of familiarity to overcome me, or some strong emotion but it didn't. The house had fallen into disrepair over the years, and if anything, I felt a surge or anxiety go through me. I didn't like being here. It didn't feel the way it was supposed to feel. With no one living it in, it felt cold. Nothing like home.

We walked through the front hall silently to see the that light that was on, was in the living room.

As we continued through the house, memories presented themselves to me. Mostly of my parents, and the times Tani and her family had been over. I smiled slightly when we passed the coat closet and I remembered the time she and I had hid in it in an attempt to prevent her parents taking her home one night.

I was brought back to the present however, when we reached the living room.

"What the hell," Chase said sounding slightly nervous when we walked in and saw that the coffee table had been pushed into the center of the room, and on it rested a chess set. The one my father had given my mother for her birthday a few weeks after she'd mentioned she'd wanted to teach me to play. I reached into my pocket and felt the piece Tiffany had given me. Suddenly, I understood why it looked familiar.

I set the piece back on the board where it had been missing, only to notice that a pawn on the other side had been moved forward two spaces in what was obviously an opening move.

Next to the board was a polaroid photograph. I picked it up and felt a wave of revulsion go through me as I realized I recognized the two people in the photo.

Chase swore.

"Dude, what is going on here?" he asked glancing around, looking sick.

It was the couple the ranger had found the weekend Tani and I had been in Seattle, they were in the woods, obviously unaware the photo had been taken. It must have been one of their last moments still alive.

I didn't answer. I looked at the two words written on the space beneath the photo, in dark, bold letters, feeling a shock of fear go through me.

' **YOUR MOVE**.'


	17. Chapter 17

Thank you for the reviews! Hope you enjoy the new chapter!

~secrethalfblood

Tpov

Jason didn't come to school the day after we'd gone diving, or for the rest of the week after that. None of his friends did either. Part of me wanted to know what he was doing, but the other, more realistic side of me, knew I probably wasn't going to find out.

What had happened? I thought we'd had a good time together at the beach. Why did he say he wanted to spend time with me if he was just going to disappear right after? What was going on?

I found myself reflecting on this a lot as the days snailed by, where Jason was or what he was up to, but I really had no idea. As the week continued, part of me was tempted to make an excuse to stop by his Grandfather's house, but I couldn't think of one that wasn't completely transparent so I spent my time with Alex and Nona feeling my mood drop every time I walked into one of our classes, and realized he wasn't there.

What was going on with me?

I was even more distracted than usual, but it wasn't in the way that I usually was. Normally when I zoned out, I was working on something, but it seemed like I couldn't even do that anymore. Instead of sketching during class, I found myself staring out the window or at the door, hoping to see him or that he'd walk in. I thought about him every night as I was trying to fall asleep, wondering what he was doing, only to dream about him. I'd wake up, half expecting for him to have texted or called me, then was annoyed when he hadn't.

Why was he icing me out like this? I thought we'd gone back to being friends. Thinking about it made me so frustrated and furious, and while I knew I shouldn't dwell on it, I couldn't stop.

"This must be exciting for you." Alex said as he, Nona, and I stepped into the gym of the school the following Saturday to see several of the student council and faculty were already milling around waiting to be told what to do. "You finally get to paint all you want at school."

He smirked down at me. Nona had gotten her wish and we were both helping decorate the gym the weekend before the dance.

"I'm really glad you guys decided to help out." Nona said printing all three of our names on the sign in sheet. "I don't think half the people who said they were going to help actually showed up."

She waved at her friends Rachel, Sarah, and Amanda who were standing by the bleachers. I felt a surge of disappointment go through me when I realized Jason wasn't here. I thought he might be, he and all his friends had signed up.

"But speaking of the dance." Nona said excitedly looking down at me. "We need to go dress shopping. "When do you want to go?"

"It doesn't matter." I said annoyed. "I'm not going to this stupid dance anyways."

"But," Nona started looking disappointed and confused. "I thought you said you were going to go."

"She's going." Alex said rolling his eyes. "Ignore her. She's been grumpy all week since her boyfriend's been gone."

"Shut up Alex." I snapped as he put his arm around Nona's shoulders and they both looked at me, Nona worried, Alex amused.

"You know you can't sulk forever."

"I am not sulking. And he's not my boyfriend." I said stubbornly. "Jason can do whatever he wants. I don't care."

"Sure, you don't." Alex said perceptively, obviously unconvinced, but before I could respond, Nona had cut in.

"I'm sure he'll be back soon."

"He probably will be, but it doesn't matter to me." I said avoiding their gaze, but I could feel their eyes on me and I couldn't help myself. "Will you guys stop looking at me like that? I'm fine."

"I could ask Rachel to text him for you." she said still obviously trying to help but I found I was only more irritated.

"If Jason wanted to talk to me, he would have." I said annoyed. "Look, it's whatever. It's not a big deal. I'm going to go paint."

And without really knowing for certain what I was supposed to be doing, I started walking towards the shelf of art supplies that had been dragged into the gym.

Eventually, Mrs. Powell, the Geometry teacher and faculty in charge of the dance, set me in the right direction and I had been painting for about an hour when I went to get more brushes. My heart sank when I realized that someone had set the cup full of them at the top of the bleachers which were currently folded up against the wall. It was in reach for most people, but not me.

"Really?" I asked irritated jumping up and trying to grab the cup, but my fingers just barely brushed it. "You put the brushes out of reach for the _one_ person who needs them? Come on!"

I jumped again and let out a shout of surprise when something caught me on my way up, and lifted me so I could grab the brushes. I looked down to see Jason grinning at me.

"Thanks." I said my poor mood vanishing on the spot.

"No problem." He said setting me down after I'd grabbed the brushes and I looked up at him.

"Where have you been?"

"The guys and I spent the last few days in the woods." He said shrugging.

"Why didn't you tell me you were going to be gone?" I asked crossing my arms over my chest, unable to keep the hurt out of my voice. I was knew I was being a little unreasonable. It wasn't that big of a deal, but still. I didn't like it when he was gone.

"It was kind of a last-minute thing."

"You could have called me or something." I persisted.

"I don't have your phone number." He said sounding slightly amused and I blinked in surprise.

"Oh." I said thinking back over the last few weeks that we'd actually been talking. I realized he was right, I'd never actually given it to him. "Well give me your phone. I can add it."

He handed me his phone and I entered the number.

"I still wish you would have told me." I said handing it back to him.

"Something came up."

"Yeah, but I thought we were friends. It sucked not having you in class. You're one of few people I actually talk to."

He smiled.

"We are friends." He agreed reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a flyer. "And since we're friends, I've already found a way to make it up to you. I saw this when we were out."

I took the flyer and looked at it with interest. It was an ad for an art festival in the Capital this weekend.

"You were in Olympia?" I asked confused. "I thought you were in the woods? What were you doing all the way down there?"

"Well we had to get food." He said shrugging which explained very little to me. "Do you want to go?"

"Sure." I said looking back down at the flyer in excitement. I had no idea what he and his friends were doing so far away from home over the last few days, but I had a feeling I wasn't going to get the full story.

"Great, we can finish up here and I can pick you up at Nona's at one?"

I smiled.

"Ok."

Just then, someone called his name and we looked over to see that his friends had been working on an arch where people could take pictures with their dates. They were gesturing for him to come over, obviously wanting his help with something.

"I gotta go." He said looking back down to me. "I'll see you later alright?"

"Yeah alright." I said feeling a little disappointed as he jogged over to his friends.

I looked around the gym to see Alex helping Nona and her friends with some streamers, and other students and teachers milling around doing various jobs. She was standing on a ladder a few rungs up so that they were the same height, and I grinned slightly, remembering how not that long ago, Alex would have had to been the one on the ladder.

I laughed to myself and walked back to the center of the gym to continue to paint.

No one really bothered me as I painted or if they tried to I wouldn't have heard them. I had my headphones in for most of the time, but eventually, around noon Nona and Alex managed to get my attention.

"What?" I asked looking around to see the gym had cleared.

"We've got to go." Nona explained. "They need to lock up the gym. Besides, Jason told me you guys have got plans soon. You've got to put on clothes that aren't covered in paint."

"You might need to get her a new wardrobe then." Alex snickered. "Make sure to shop in the juniors section."

"You think you're funny, don't you?" I asked calmly and he shrugged.

"Moderately."

"You're not."

"Could you guys bicker outside?" Nona asked as she started to pick up the paints and brushes I'd been using. "We've got to let the teachers close up."

Ten minutes later we'd walked back out into the rain which was falling over the parking lot.

"You going to come over to hang out?" Nona asked Alex hopefully as she unlocked her car which was parked right next to his.

"No, I've got to go to work. I could drop by after."

"Great," she said smiling. "We can coordinate what we're going to wear for the dance. I was thinking we could go with the theme and wear either blue or green."

"Have fun." I said smirking at him.

"That's a lot of sass coming from someone who ranted for an hour when I said burgundy and crimson are the same color."

"And rightfully so." I said frowning. "Ask Nona. If she wears crimson and you show up in burgundy you're going to look awful in pictures."

"Don't drag me into this." She said in exasperation and getting into the driver's seat. "I'll see you later Alex."

"See you."

"Don't forget to send me your history notes." I said as he hopped into his truck. "Otherwise I'm going to fail the test next week."

"You know you could take your own notes." He said amused.

"I could. But we both know I won't."

He rolled his eyes but laughed slightly as he shut his door and I slid into the seat next to Nona's.

"So what are you and Jason up to today?" she asked as I buckled my seatbelt.

"He said there's some sort of art festival in Olympia, so we're going to go there."

"You're going all the way down there?" she asked her eyes wide.

"Yeah, why what's wrong?"

"Nothing." She said turning her key in the ignition and pulling out onto the road after Alex. "It's just, that's a long trip for last minute plans. I'm surprised you're going that's all."

"Why?"

"Well you're not a very last minute person. You like having time to yourself, you don't like people changing your schedule."

"Yeah," I said shrugging. "But it's not some random person. It's Jason."

She didn't answer this which was unusual for her. When I glanced over to see she was smiling to herself.

"What?" I asked suspiciously.

"Nothing." She said innocently but her smile was growing.

"Nona…" I warned but she just shook her head and continued to drive.

The whole ride home I tried to get her to tell me what she'd been thinking, but she refused. I was about to resort to drastic measures when I saw a familiar car in her driveway which drove it from my mind completely.

"What's up?" Nona asked grabbing her purse from the back seat and catching my expression.

My response was to point towards the hybrid.

"What-oh." She said looking just as surprised as I felt.

"Did you know they were coming?"

She shook her head.

"No. Let's go inside."

We walked up the steps and through the front door to see four people sitting around the dining room table, each of them turning towards us as we entered the front hall.

"Mom?" I asked in total shock. "Dad?"

"Tani!" my mother exclaimed excitedly standing from the table and crossing the room to pull me into a hug quickly followed my father while I stood there, stunned.

"Hey." I said hugging them each and looking up at them. "What are you doing here?"

"We're taking a vacation from our vacation. So we thought we'd come and surprise you!" My mother said brightly and pulling Nona into a hug as well. "How are you Nona? Jeez you're as tall as I am now. At least one of you got my family's height genes." She continued a little amused as she let Nona go.

While people said I looked like my mother, with the exception of my eyes, I'd definitely gotten my height from my father's side of the family. My mother was taller than him with the same body type as Nona and her mother, and the same kind brown eyes though her hair was lighter. Size wasn't the only place my father's genes had won out either. Like me he wore glasses and while my mother was much more outgoing like Nona, he was quiet. He also had a tendency to get absorbed in whatever he was working on, usually reading or writing papers. His hair had a few more streaks of gray in the black than the last time I'd seen him, but behind his glasses his amber eyes were exactly the same as I remembered them.

"I'm fine." Nona said answering my mother's question.

"I see you've managed to get her out of the house on a Saturday for once." My mother said in approval and looking back at me. "But I'm excited to see what you've been working on since I've last seen you. Anything good? I know you said you felt blocked before we left."

Like me, my mother was an artist in her spare time. It was actually how my parents had met. My father had seen her work at a gallery, and ended up buying the whole collection.

"I think you're overloading her honey." My father said putting a hand on her shoulder and looking down at me. "Maybe we should have given her a heads up. You ok Tan?"

"Yeah," I said shaking my head trying to adjust. "I'm just surprised. How long are you in town?"

"Just the next few days. We had some free time in our schedule so we thought we'd check in on you. See how you're holding up in your new school."

"I'm fine." I said honestly.

"Are you sure sweetie?" my mother asked examining me shrewdly. "I know you said you wanted to move back home but if it's not working out it's ok, we can always bring you back with us."

"I'm fine Mom." I said a little irritated. They were treating me like a little kid. "Is that why you're here? You're worried about me?"

"We wanted to see you." my father said.

"And we know it might be hard for you, you know, to come back to school here."

"I'm fine." I repeated definitely annoyed now. "Nona, tell them."

She glanced at my mother a little awkwardly and I noticed she was avoiding my eye.

"Have you been spying for them?" I asked her indignantly.

"No!" she insisted but I continued to look at her and she explained. "Your mom just asked me how you were a couple times. What you were up to when she couldn't reach you and I told her."

"So then you should know I'm ok." I said looking at my parents.

"She says you don't spend much time with other people."

"Nona!" I said rounding on her.

"She asked, what was I supposed to do? Lie? You talk to like three people."

"I'm fine." I said stubbornly. "In fact, I have plans to go hang out with someone this afternoon."

"Who?" my father asked and I felt my stomach shrink. I hadn't thought that through at all…

"A friend from school." I said avoiding his eye.

I noticed Nona shoot me a look but I ignored her.

"I've actually got to get ready."

"But you only just got home." My mother said looking upset. "We've hardly seen you at all."

"I know." I said a little guiltily. "But I'll be home all day tomorrow. I thought you wanted me to hang out with friends."

They didn't argue, but while my mother still looked a little disappointed, my father frowned. He looked as if he wanted to say something, but I didn't give him the chance to.

I quickly walked to my room feeling guilty until I checked my phone and saw I had a text from Jason.

'Be there in ten.'

I smiled and quickly started to change.

Jpov

Though we found many blood suckers on our latest hunting trip, none of them seemed to be the one we were looking for. Even the ones we didn't kill, that were either out of our territory or able to be reasoned with had no information that was useful.

I had no doubt whatever had killed that couple and then broken into my parents' house was a vampire, but right now, it seemed as if it was working alone.

Though everything that had happened had been extremely unsettling, after four days of hunting and getting no information, we were forced to conclude that we'd have to go home and rethink our strategy.

"What I want to know." Lewis said frowning. "Is how the hell it got on the reservation without any of us noticing."

"Not just on the reservation." Aster said quietly. "It was out in the open. It knew to find Tiffany. How did we miss that? How did it know?"

"And what does it want with you?" Chase asked looking at me.

We were sitting in the living room of my Grandfather's house after coming back from the school, trying to think up a solution for our current situation.

"It obviously has eyes in or on the reservation. There's no way it could have set all this up without watching us." I said flatly. "But as for how it got here without any of us knowing and what it wants with me. Well, I might have an answer for that."

"What do you mean?" Chase asked frowning as they all looked at me.

"You know how some vamps have special abilities right?"

They nodded.

"A few years back. When I'd first started phasing. I ran into one that had a really weird power."

"Weird in what way?" Lewis asked his eyes narrowing. The expression was mirrored on the others' faces.

I hesitated dreading saying it out loud, both because I knew it would scare them, and I didn't want to admit to myself.

"I don't know how, but this bloodsucker, it had the ability to cover its scent. If that's what we're dealing with, well, it wouldn't be too hard for it to get onto the reservation without us being aware."

"You think that's what we're dealing with?" Chase asked seriously while Aster's eyes went wide and Lewis looked furious.

"And you waited until NOW to tell us?"

"I wasn't sure." I said shaking my head. "But I can't think of any other explanation."

"But what does this have to do with you?" asked Aster looking a little confused. "Sure that ability might be useful but you'd think it would want to stay away from us regardless. Even if we can't track it easily, why run the risk?"

"Because I spent months tracking that thing. I think the vampire thought of it as some sort of game or something. Like it had fun seeing if I could catch it, I don't know. Every time I caught up with it though, it managed to slip by me, but I did manage to injure it at some point. I can't remember. You know what happens when you first start phasing, half the time you don't know what's going on, but I think that's what made it want to get me back. The last time I saw the blood sucker, it said one of the players was missing, but it would be back. I guess now it is."

"So what do we do?" Aster asked. "How did you find the vamp last time if it can cover its tracks?"

"Well as you've seen it's not that subtle. It almost seemed to like having me on it's tail. I kept an eye out for strange deaths, patterns in its attacks, where it liked to hunt. Eventually, every so often I'd manage to figure out where the vamp would be and catch it off guard. Keep an eye on the news, ask around if anyone's seen anything weird going on. Sketchy strangers. Sam's already told us what Tiff said the blood sucker looked like, see if you hear anything about someone that matched that description. In the meantime, we'll make sure the majority of us are here. Maybe we'll get lucky and run into it, though I doubt that will happen."

"I don't like this." Lewis said quietly. "First, we've got a wolf that won't phase to worry about, now we've got a blood sucker we can't track. And that's on top of all the stuff we normally have to do. How are we supposed to manage all of this? There's not that many of us."

"We'll just have to." I said flatly.

"But-"

"Lewis, if you have any other suggestions I'd love to hear them." I said cutting him off only to find he had no response.

"There's no point in brooding over something we can't change. I know there's not a lot of us, but we'll have to make do." I glanced at my watch. "I've got to go."

"Where?" Chase said confused.

"I've got to go pick up Tani."

"You're still leaving?" Lewis asked indignantly and I noticed Aster looked alarmed too. "After all this?"

"Yeah." I said and while it hadn't seemed like a big deal when I said it, uncertainty crept though me. "We can't do anything right now. We need more information."

"So we should be out there getting it." Lewis continued. "What if one of us finds something?"

"Then tell me."

"And then what?" he asked incredulously. "We wait til you get back? You'll be in hours away and if Tani's with you you can't get back to us quickly."

"Then Chase can handle it." I said stubbornly.

"No he can't." Lewis snapped ignoring the warning looks from both Aster and Chase. "Thanks to your girlfriend's freakishly happy geek of a friend, the pack order is all messed up. You can't just go running off because you feel like it! You're supposed to be in charge!"

"You all are perfectly capable of dealing with a vampire if you run into one." I said starting to get annoyed. "How many times have you guys blown me off when you wanted to spend time with the girls? Why do I have to baby sit you?"

"We've never dealt with anything like this before." Aster said quietly.

"So?" I asked angrily. I could feel my pulse quickening.

"So you're the fastest and the strongest out of all of us!" Lewis shouted sounding even angrier than I felt. "You've been doing this longer than any of us. You're supposed to be there telling us what to do when stuff like this happens. It's your job!"

"I never asked for it!" I shouted back and they fell silent. Aster looked afraid, Lewis confused, but Chase was looking at me in concern.

I found it hard to look at them and I felt bitterness rising within me.

What did they want from me? Answers I couldn't give them? Did they think I wasn't just as worried about this thing as they were? That it wasn't a million times worse for me knowing that if I failed, and something happened to the people we cared about, it would be all my fault?

It wasn't fair.

Why did they get to go off with the people they loved and not think about it for a while? All I wanted was one day. To spend one day with the only person who could make me forget about all this for a while. Was that too much to ask for? Why was it only my job to never take a break from pack life?

"I think you should go." Chase said surprising everyone.

We all looked at him.

"You do?" Lewis and Aster asked in unified shock.

"Jason's right. We need a new plan, and to do that we need to gather information, and we can do without him."

"But what if something happens?" Lewis asked harshly.

"Then we'll deal with it until he gets back." He said flatly. "We can handle a couple hours by ourselves. Jason's allowed to have a life."

"Any other time I'd agree with you." Lewis said in frustration. "We can handle vampires, but this isn't an ordinary vamp! He said it himself, it was damn near impossible to track. Why'd you have to pick now to suddenly stop caring?" he asked turning towards me.

"Because he finally has something else to care about!" Chase said in exasperation. "Don't you guys get that?"

He was glaring at the other two who looked a little surprised by his reaction, but he didn't let up.

"For the past two years, the only thing he's ever done was take protect the reservation and take care of the pack. Now he's got a life outside us, and that's not a bad thing." He continued when it looked like Lewis was about to protest. "We're not supposed to live this way forever. Why do you think we imprint?" he asked. "If we don't have something that gives us purpose outside the pack, well, what would stop us from doing this forever? Forgetting what it's like to be human. What would stop us from becoming just like the blood suckers?" He sounded angry now. "Are you seriously going to keep him away from that just because it might make things harder on you for one day?"

Neither of them had a response for this.

"We can manage one day." He said flatly. "Lewis, you go to Sam, see if he's got any new information. Aster, keep an eye on Alex as usual. I'll go update the girls see if they've heard anything."

"Fine." Lewis muttered. He still sound sounded angry but didn't complain as both he and Aster made their way out the back door.

We didn't speak for a moment. I knew the other two were talking outside, part of me was tempted to find out what they were saying, but I didn't. I ended the silence when I heard them take off.

"Thanks." I said quietly to Chase and he nodded.

"No problem. You going to be ok?"

"I'll be fine." I said but when he continued to look at me, I elaborated. "I'm just getting so sick of this."

"I know what you mean." He said quietly looking out the window. "Rachel's parents have been bugging her to get her college applications in, and it made me realize that I hadn't even thought about it. It's like, ever since I've started doing this, I've just been stuck while the rest of the world keeps moving on. And then Rachel told me she was thinking about waiting to apply, until I was ready so we could go to school together." He sighed. "But that just made me feel worse. Like I'm holding her back too. But every time I start thinking I might be able to move on…"

"Something happens." I finished for him.

"Do you ever feel like sometimes there's no way out?" he asked quietly.

"There is." I said not wanting to admit that I often felt that way. "Sam got out. So did his entire pack."

"I guess you're right." He said with a sigh. "Guess we just got to wait our turn."

"Yeah." I said thinking of Tani.

"You should probably head out though." He said glancing at his watch, as if he knew exactly what I was thinking. "Don't worry about things here, we can keep them under control until you get back."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Just go have a good time. Try not to think about all this for a while."

"Why are you so cool with this?" I asked confused. "Lewis and Aster were pretty upset, but you…"

"They only know you as the leader of their pack. To them that's all you're supposed to care about, they've never seen you any other way, but I'm your best friend and I remember what it was like when you were younger. Before all this craziness started." He sighed. "I care if you're happy."

Silence fell between us again, and I wasn't exactly sure what to say, but again, it was I who eventually broke the silence.

"Well, thanks again. Let me know if I need to get back." I said pulling out my phone and starting to text Tani.

"I will."

I grabbed my keys and walked out to the car, my mind wandering as I drove to Nona's house still thinking about the vampire that was on the loose and if I should really be leaving, but my mood improved as I parked on the street. I found it was hard not to smile as I walked up to the front door and knocked on it, but the feeling died when I recognized the man who opened the door.

He'd been laughing, but it had died when he spotted me.

"Jason." Tani's father said his eyes flashing behind his glasses, and while he hadn't raised his voice and he was at least a foot shorter than me, I suddenly felt very, _very_ small. Like I was a kid again and I was in trouble. "What are you doing here?"


	18. Chapter 18

Thanks for the reviews! They mean a lot!

~secrethalfblood

Tpov

"You didn't tell your parents you and Jason are hanging out again, did you?"

I looked up from my bag that was resting on my bed to see Nona standing in my door way, her arms crossed over her chest and suspicion in her eyes.

"Not exactly." I said feeling a bit awkward as I pulled on my rain jacket.

"Why not?"

"It never came up."

"Yeah? And what are you going to say when Jason turns up?" she asked looking over her shoulder to make sure neither of our parents were in the hall. "Did you think about that?"

"No," I said honestly. "I didn't know they'd be here."

"This isn't going to be good." She muttered shaking her head. "Your Dad's going to be furious when he finds out you've been hanging out with Jason again."

"I'm surprised they didn't already know." I said shooting her a glare and she looked exasperated.

"It's not my fault you're terrible about returning phone calls! If you'd talked to your parents more your mom wouldn't have asked me anything. You wouldn't be in this situation at all."

"Aren't you supposed to be on my side?" I asked her.

"I am on your side. But how was I supposed to know you didn't want me talking to them if you didn't tell me? If your mom calls of course I'm going to answer, she's my family too you know."

I didn't have an argument for this.

"I guess you have a point." I muttered.

"So, what's your plan?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"I guess hope to get out the door before Jason shows up."

Just then there was a knock from downstairs and I felt a pang of fear go through me.

"Hope you have a plan B." Nona said quietly as I grabbed my bag and raced down the steps only to spot my father as I was half way down, already at the front door.

"Jason." My father said obviously startled at first but his tone quickly turned to anger as he continued. "What are you doing here?"

I swore and jogged down the remaining steps, ducking under his arm that was still holding the door open as I made it to the front hall.

"I'll see you later Dad." I said trying to get out of the house before he'd realized what was happening, but I felt a hand catch my jacket and I was pulled to a stop.

"Vitani." He started with warning in his tone and I winced at the use of my full name. "What's going on here?"

"Nothing." I said noticing Jason, who was still standing at the front door, looked a little uncomfortable as well. It wasn't an expression I was used to seeing from him. "We're just going out for a bit."

"And when did you plan on telling me this?"

"It's no big deal." I said trying to pull away from him but he didn't let go. "I thought you wanted me to hang out with people."

"Inside. Both of you." he snapped.

"But Dad-"

"Now." He cut me off and after a glance at Jason, I sighed and turned back into the house feeling my stomach tie itself into knots.

I heard the door shut as Jason stepped in after my father who gestured towards the living room. My mother, who'd obviously noticed something was going on, stepped in not long after us.

"Arthur, is something…" but her question faded when she spotted Jason. "Jason." She said sounding a little stunned, though I wasn't sure if it was at his sudden appearance or how tall he was now. Maybe both. "Why are you here?"

"Apparently this is who our daughter has plans with today." My father said glowering at me as I sat on the couch. Jason sat next to me and I was brought back several years, the last time we'd been sat down like this and forced to face my parents, when we'd accidentally broken my mother's favorite vase. "Does either of you care to explain what's going on?"

"It's not a big deal." I repeated a little afraid to look at my parents that were now standing in front of us. "Jason just invited me to go to an art festival. That's it."

"Really?" my father asked skeptically and when I chanced a glance at them, he looked angry and my mother seemed worried and confused. "And neither of you see a problem with this?"

"No." I said stubbornly as Nona came into view. She hovered outside of the room, looking uncertain if she wanted to come in or not.

"You honestly think that after everything that's happened this is a good idea?" my father asked incredulously.

"Look, I know what you're thinking." I started wondering why Jason hadn't said anything yet. "But I'm not a little kid anymore Dad. All that stuff that happened, it was years ago and-"

"And you'd think you would have learned your lesson by now." My father said, cutting me off again. "How long has this been going on anyways? When did you two even start talking again?"

"Not that long," I said but most unhelpfully my aunt had poked her head into the living room to see what was going on, and she smiled when she saw Jason. Apparently unaware of the tension.

"Jason." She said brightly while Nona frantically motioned for her to stop talking, but my aunt didn't see. "Nice to see you again." She continued cluelessly and I saw Nona smack her hand to her forehead.

My parents both looked at me for an explanation I was having trouble forming, but finally, Jason spoke.

"Look, I understand if you're unhappy I'm here."

"That's putting it mildly." My father muttered and while I could see Jason stiffen next to me, he ignored this.

"I didn't realize Tani hadn't told you we were talking again." He continued his tone calm, but I knew he was upset. "If I did, I would have encouraged her to."

"Seems convenient." My father said flatly.

"Dad!"

"You have no room to talk young lady." He said glowering at me. "When were you planning to tell us about this? If we hadn't come to see you this weekend would we have ever found out?"

Guilt burned through me so strongly, I found I couldn't answer and Jason stepped in.

"You have a right to be concerned, but things are different-"

"Different?" he scoffed. "How are you different Jason? How have you changed?" he asked turning to glare at him. "Do you think I don't know how you are about my daughter?How you've always been. Do you think I don't remember hearing every excuse under the sun?"

"Arthur." My mother said putting a hand on his shoulder, something like warning in her tone but he ignored this.

"You'd always do or say whatever you had to see her. No matter who it might hurt because of it. That never mattered to you as long as you got what you wanted. Do you really expect me to believe that's changed?"

Their gaze met and I expected Jason to get angry. I expected him to try and stick up for himself, but he didn't.

"No." he said quietly looking down at his hands. "I don't."

"I think you should leave." My father said coldly.

"What?" I asked angrily. "Dad!"

"It's ok Tan." Jason muttered not looking at me as he got to his feet. "I'll see you at school."

"No it's not ok!" I said furiously trying to follow him as he stepped out of the room, but Nona held me back.

My aunt and my mom seemed to be trying to talk to my Dad as he followed Jason to the front door and shut it behind him.

"What the hell?" I shouted at him furiously.

"Tani," Nona warned but I ignored her. Both my aunt and uncle were in the hall now looking awkward and my mother looked nervous.

"What was that for?" I continued so angry my hands were balled into fists.

"You know exactly what it was for." My father said dismissively.

"You didn't even let him talk!"

"What could he possibly say that we haven't heard before Tani?" he snapped. "Don't you remember everything he's done?"

"Things are different now!"

"Yes, I'm sure whatever he's said to convince you he's changed was really convincing." He spat. "Just like it was every other time. I thought you were smarter than this Tani. I thought you'd learned your lesson not to go messing with that boy. What kind of a father would I be if I let you around someone him?"

"I can make my own decisions." I said angrily. "I'm not a little kid!"

"If you've been spending time with Jason, clearly you can't."

I glared at him, so furious I didn't even know how to put what I was feeling into words. My pulse was racing, I could hear it pounding in my ears as anger continued to build in me. This had never happened before, I never got angry like this with people, least of all my father. Usually we got along so well. We were both quiet and able to exist in the same space without talking for hours, we'd be doing our own thing but it was still nice to have each other around. Now I was so mad I wanted to throw something at him.

Not knowing what else to do, I pushed past my parents.

"Where do you think you're going?" my father called after me.

"To the shed!" I shouted back not bothering to explain.

I grabbed my headphones out of my bag as I hit the grass of the back lawn and immediately started blasting music from them as I pulled my hair back, grabbed a brush and started attacking the nearest canvas with paint.

I was out there for about a half an hour when I heard the door open behind me and I noticed Nona walking in.

"Ok…" she said spotting the paint flecks that dotted the ceiling and floor from when I'd been thrashing the brush around. "So I'm guessing you don't want to talk?"

"No."

"Well get changed. Rachel and Sarah invited us to go dress shopping for the dance."

"I told you I'm not going to that stupid-"

"You don't have to buy a dress if you don't want to." She said shrugging. "But getting out of the house might make you feel better. At least it's an excuse to get away from your dad for the day while you two cool off."

"Yeah, I guess so." I muttered dropping my brush back into its holder and following her out of the shed.

Both of our parents were watching a movie in the living room when we got back into the house, I ignored this and went to change, still in a bad mood when I came down stairs.

Neither of us spoke as we got into Nona's car and she pulled out of the driveway, but I noticed she looked a little jittery. As if she were nervous about something. I didn't know if she was uncomfortable with the silence between us, or if it was my extremely obvious poor mood that was putting her on edge, but I didn't ask.

"I thought you said we were going to Rachel's house." I said confused, remembering what she'd told our parents when they had asked where we were going. We were supposed to meet her and Sarah there before we went to the mall.

"Yeah." She said still sounding a little nervous. She was tapping her fingers on the steering wheel.

"Wasn't that her street?" I asked looking over my shoulder as the street sign grew smaller and smaller the farther we got from the turn.

"It was."

I turned back to look at her, confused.

"Well then what gives?"

"I'm going to Rachel's house. You're not."

"What?" I asked still uncertain as to what was going on as she turned off the main road, but feeling my heart skip a beat when I recognized the street we were on. "Wait."

"I told you I was on your side." She said parking on the curb outside a familiar house and I grinned.

Jason was leaning against his grandfather's car, obviously waiting for us to get here.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" I said attempting to tackle her in a hug, but getting caught by the seatbelt lock and she laughed.

"Not one word to either of our parents." She said as I struggled against the restraint.

"Duh." I agreed, eventually managing to free myself and complete the embrace.

"Ok, you'd better get going," she said letting me go. "The sooner you and Jason start heading out the better."

"You are the best!" I said unbuckling my seat belt and opening the car door. "I owe you one."

"Yeah, not really."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll find out. Have fun!" she said brightly.

She leaned over and shut the door from the inside, then waved, and started driving back towards Rachel's house.

I waved as well, then turned to face Jason.

"Hey." I said grinning.

"Glad to see you made it."

"Yeah, got lucky I guess. Good thing Rachel and Sarah wanted to go shopping."

"Luck had nothing to do with it." he said a little amused.

"What do you mean?"

"I might have texted Rachel and Nona when I got home." He admitted opening the passenger side door for me.

"Wait." I said feeling frozen in place. "You were behind all this?"

"Yep." he continued with a nod. "I thought we might need a back up plan the second I saw your Dad."

"Well if you were this determined to go with me, why did you leave so quickly?"

"Because I knew there was no way they'd let you out of the house if I made it clear I was going make sure you got to go. The more I argued, the more your dad would have suspected something like this was going to happen."

"What makes you think that?"

"'Cuz your dad is right about me. I haven't changed. Not when it comes to you. If you still wanted to go I wasn't going to let him get in the way."

I felt a shock go through me, and that nervous energy that so often filled me when he was around returned. I knew that what he'd said shouldn't have made me feel like this. Like I wanted to step closer to him and it was hard to breathe. It was this sort of reckless behavior, getting caught up in the way being around him made me feel, that had led to so much disaster in the past. My father was right, I really hadn't learned anything.

He seemed to know what was going through my head.

"Do you still want to go?" he asked hesitantly.

What Jason was saying probably wasn't good for either of us, but I couldn't help it. I didn't care.

"Yeah." I said grinning and hopping into the passenger seat.

"Alright." He said smiling as well and shutting the door, then crossing to the driver's side.

The drive took several hours not that I seemed to notice. The weather cleared the farther south we went, going in and out of radio station ranges, talking about anything and everything, before I knew it, we'd made to the Capital.

"Is there anything here that isn't vegan?" he asked a little annoyed as we looked at the food trucks that lined the street of the festival before we went to check out the exhibits.

"Still not a vegetable fan I see." I said amused.

"Do you know how much food someone my size needs to eat?" he asked raising an eyebrow. "You seriously think I'm going to get the calories I need from a carrot kabob?" He finished gesturing towards a stand that had its options listed in colorful, decorative chalk letters written on a black board that bolted to the side of the truck.

"Point taken." I said grinning slightly. "But you can relax. That one's selling burritos."

I pointed towards a crowded truck on the opposite side of the street.

"Thank god." He muttered and we made our way towards the back of the line.

Despite the amount of people, the wait wasn't long.

"You're in luck." I said as a woman in front of us walked up to the counter to make her order. The sun had set and as we pushed forward with the rest of the crowd, the street lights flickered on. "They've got something called the 'heart stopper'. It comes with bacon."

He didn't respond and I looked up at him.

"Jason?"

"I heard." He said quietly. He wasn't looking at me but over the crowd. His jaw was set and his body was stiff. Clearly, whatever he saw, was making him angry.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Don't worry about it." he muttered, still refusing to look at me and I followed his line of sight.

My eyes fell on a couple a bit farther down the block, they were in the shadows, half hidden in an alley and I felt my stomach contract with sudden fear.

They looked our way, and though it was crazy to think this way, they seemed to pick Jason out of the crowd. Well, maybe it wasn't that crazy. He was taller than most everyone here, but the way they were looking at him... It was weird. Like they somehow knew each other, though I found that hard to believe.

They were both pale, but extremely good looking. Almost too good looking.

I found I'd taken an automatic step closer to Jason as anxiety continued to fill me. Though we were separated from the alleyway by a street filled with at least seventy people, something about the way they moved was eerily familiar. It was unsettling. It just didn't look right.

The man leaned closer to the woman, obviously saying something to her, and I noticed the couple and Jason seemed to be sizing each other up.

"That's what I thought." He muttered darkly when they gave him one last look, then stepped out of the alley and started to walk away.

"Do you know them?" I asked uncomfortably.

"No." he said continuing to glower after them. "But I know what people like them are. And they know to stay far away from here."

It hit me then that Jason was still the leader of the latest gang on the reservation. I often forgot, since we'd started spending time together he seemed so much like his old self lately. But as he watched the couple his eyes narrowed. I could see the older, more serious side to him coming out.

"I'm sure it's not that big of a deal." I said softly.

"Yeah probably." He agreed but I knew he was just doing so to change the subject.

"You alright?" I asked throwing caution to the wind and I was surprised when he took my hand.

"Yeah, let's just order."

My heart skipped a beat, as his fingers laced with mine but I couldn't help and look over my shoulder. The couple had vanished.

Assuming I'd lost them in the crowd, I continued to look around the street, but they were nowhere to be found. They were just gone.


	19. Chapter 19

Sorry it's been so long! Thank you for the reviews/follows/favorites! They really mean a lot! Hope you like the new chapter.

~Secrethalfblood

Jpov

I kept an eye out for more blood suckers as we walked through the festival, Tani looking as if she was having the time of her life. Even if she hadn't been smiling as we visited the exhibits, I would have known she was happy. Tani was usually a pretty quiet person, her mind almost always in other places, but not tonight. Tonight, she was completely present. And she was talking a lot.

"You know, not that I'm complaining." She said as we weaved through the crowd that was moving down the block. "But I'm kind of surprised you were able to get Nona to help you today. She hates lying."

"Yeah, I had to bribe her." I admitted a little awkwardly. I was hoping this would have come up later tonight, if not at some point in the next few days.

"Really?" she asked with interest. "What'd you bribe her with?"

"I told her I'd convince you to come to the dance next weekend."

"So that's why she said I didn't owe her anything." She mused. "I don't know why she cares so much. It's not that big of a deal."

"If it's not that big a deal, why are you so determined not to go?"

"One." She started holding up a finger with the number. "I don't have a date, so I would just be awkwardly glomming on to other people the whole time if I didn't want to spend the dance by myself. Two," she put up a second finger. "The only people that I would talk to are going together so that would be really awkward. And three," She raised a third finger. "Dances are lame and if I'm not going to go with someone what's the point? I'd have more fun at home than being the loser who shows up without a date."

"I don't have a date." I pointed out. "I'm still going to be there. And you could talk to me if Alex and Nona get annoying."

"Yeah, but unlike me, you not having a date is sort of a big deal and I wouldn't be able to talk to you anyways."

"What do you mean?"

At this she looked a little annoyed.

"All the girls in school want to go with you. It's all they've been talking about this week while you've been gone." She said moodily. "They're going to be all over you during the dance so talking to you is pretty much out."

She wasn't looking at me and I could tell this bothered her more than she wanted to admit. I almost smiled. She looked a bit like Tiffany when she was annoyed that the girls were with the pack and no one was giving her any attention.

"Not if you went with me." I said careful to control my tone.

"I dunno. I think I'm kind of over going to dances with friends." She said shrugging. "I think I've gone to enough with Alex for a life time."

She said this automatically, obviously thinking the offer was nothing more than me attempting to be nice, but it made me realize she still had no idea how I felt about her. In the second it took me to respond, my stomach tightened I decided to take a risk.

"I didn't mean as friends." I said feeling my heart rate increase and she looked up at me in surprise.

"What, do you mean like a date?" she asked still obviously shocked, and I couldn't gauge her reaction. If saying this had been good or bad. I decided to take another risk.

"Yeah. You want to go with me?"

She seemed too stunned to speak for a moment and I saw she was starting to blush. My heart was pounding harder now, and my stomach tightened but just as I was sure she was about to say no, she smiled.

"Yeah, ok."

"Good." I said relief flooding through me as we continued to walk, this time unable to hide my smile.

"I can't believe you're asking me." She said amazed.

"Why?" I asked taking her hand.

"Well, you could go with anyone you want to. In fact, I bet you could ask a random girl here and she'd agree."

"I am going with the girl I want to go with." I said shrugging and while she didn't say anything to this, I felt her fingers lace with mine.

We were pretty far down the street at this point and she'd just to stop to look at a couple of water colors when a painting across the street caught my eye.

I didn't know why it stood out to me at first. It was one of many hung around several sculptures and a couple of mannequins modeling flamboyantly designed dresses. But something about it made me stop. There was something about the blues and greens that reminded me of the woods on the reservation, the sky poking through the leaves on a nice day. The lines and patterns in the painting were familiar.

"What are you looking at?" Tani asked obviously realizing I'd spotted something that interested me.

"Over there." I said gesturing towards the painting. "It looks like something you'd do."

Her eyes followed my gaze and I saw them go wide.

"That is one of mine." She said looking stunned and starting to walk towards the exhibit. "But how-"

But her sentence was cut short by an excited squeal and someone shouted.

"OH! MY! GOD!"

I turned with several other people to look at the noise, half expecting the vampires to be back, only to see Tani tackled to the pavement by a girl followed by a laugh as a second girl piled on top.

"TANI!" They shouted in excitement as two boys followed them out of the crowd.

"Eva? Shay?" Tani asked in amazement as she sat up, her glasses crooked, but smiling and looking between the two girls. "What are you guys doing here?"

Both girls were exuberantly dressed, one with long dark hair that was streaked with neon colors and dressed like a character out of a steam punk video game, while the other seemed to have stepped out of the fifties with a printed dress that looked as if it belonged on a doll. Her hair was also dark but curled to match the era of her dress.

"The school's doing an exhibit in the festival!" The steam punk girl, the one Tani had called Shay, exclaimed excitedly. "We've got Chris and Matt with us too!"

Tani looked up at the boys who were watching the girls and smiled at them as well.

Both were tall, one built like a football player with short dark hair that matched his eyes, while the second was thinner. His hair was stylish and blonde and his green eyes were looking at her a little amused.

"Hey." She said sounding a little surprised, but continuing to smile all the same.

The big one waved and the blonde said.

"Should have known we'd find you here. Anyone else with you?"

He was good looking and offered her a hand, which she took and he helped her up.

"Yeah." She said as she let go. "I'm here with my friend Jason."

She gestured to me and the group turned. Their reactions were immediate and predictable.

"Holy hell." The blonde said taking a step back, his eyes going a little wide while they all gaped at me.

"How tall are you?" Shay asked her eyes even wider than the boy and her friend Eva nudged her with her elbow, obviously embarrassed by the forward question.

"Six, six." I said amused as the big one looked at me in alarm. I had the feeling he wasn't used to not being the biggest guy in any group.

Their amazement was cut off by Shay, who burst out laughing.

"What is it now Shay?" The blonde said with a sigh, as if this wasn't unusual for her.

"He's a foot and half taller than her!" she said between gasps of air.

"It's not that funny…" Tani muttered grumpily as the others started to grin slightly.

"And we thought you standing next to Chris was bad!" Shay continued to laugh as she pulled out her phone. "Tani, stand next to him so I can send a picture to Christa. She's _got_ to see this."

"No!"

"Tan, who are these people?" I asked ignoring the girl and looking down at her.

I noticed the blonde boy shoot me an irritated look, as if he thought I was the one that needed to be explained, not the other way around.

"These are my friends from California." She said beaming. "We went to school together. That's Shay." She said gesturing towards the laughing girl. "She's into graphic design. Eva," the 50s-girl waved cheerfully. "She was in the fashion department. Matt was in the contemporary focus with me." She said pointing at the blonde boy. "And Chris."

"My metal welding prince!" Shay suddenly shouted and jumped into the big guy's arms.

"Chris is into metal work." Tani explained amused. "And he's dating Shay." She continued as Shay kissed him on the cheek. "If that wasn't obvious."

"Who are you?" Matt asked with obvious dislike in his tone as he looked at me.

"This is Jason." Tani clarified before I could respond. "We grew up together."

"Funny." Matt said crossing his arms over his chest. "She's never mentioned you."

"That's something we have in common then." I said coolly and he looked annoyed.

He continued to glare at me for a moment and I looked back, something less than interested, but eventually, Shay took it upon herself to break the silence.

"Ok, I'm going to go before the testosterone level between you two gets overwhelming." She said rolling her eyes and looking up at her boyfriend. "On ward my tempered knight! Let us find libations!"

She pointed to a coffee kiosk and he laughed as he set her down, then let her drag him to the stand.

"You know, now that she mentioned it, I think I'm going to get a drink too." Eva said glancing at the stand. "You guys want anything?"

"I think we're ok." Tani said as I shook my head and Matt shrugged.

"Ok, we'll be back in a bit." Eva said.

She turned and followed the couple looking amused, her curls bouncing as she walked and Tani turned to Matt.

"I had no idea you guys would be here." She said happily.

"Yeah. We didn't expect to run into you either." He said. "I mean, we knew you were in the state, but when we were considering coming up to visit you while we were here, we saw that where you live is hours away."

"Yeah, I didn't know any of this was happening at all. I wouldn't have found out about it if Jason hadn't told me."

"So it was your idea to come here?" he asked looking at me. "That's surprising."

It was clear by his tone that he was attempting to make fun of me, and while Tani glanced at me anxiously, I ignored it. She still seemed nervous however, because she quickly changed the subject, asking Matt to show her around the exhibit that was featuring him and their friends.

They continued to talk and catch up for a while but I couldn't say I was terribly interested in their conversation. They were mostly talking about people I didn't know in classes I'd never taken.

"You know you really need to come back next year Tan." He said in what was almost a sulk. "Now that you've left I have to sit next to Billy Stultz."

I could tell this annoyed him and Tani laughed as we continued to look around.

"Oh boy. Bet you're happy about that."

"He's got half your talent and talks twice as much." He said darkly. "You were the only one who had any sort of vision in that class and now you've left me."

"You just liked me 'cuz I didn't talk your ear off."

"I liked you because you're talented. You don't need to talk when you're working. Your work speaks for itself."

It took all my restraint not to roll my eyes at this. It was obvious he was into her. Was this how artists flirted?

As he continued to show her around the exhibit, first what he and their friends had done, then the other pieces, it became clear to me just how much he wanted to impress her.

I expected this to bother me but for some reason it didn't. It was actually a little amusing to me to see how irritated he'd get when she'd point something out to me, or laugh at something I said. All of his attempts to flirt with her went right over her head. She had absolutely no idea what he was doing.

Her friends came and went as they went to look at other exhibits, as well as some of her past classmates, but Matt seemed determined to stick with us. I didn't really mind. While I'd always liked time on my own with Tani, it was kind of fun to watch him struggle.

He'd taken to making comments that were thinly veiled insults to people that weren't 'artists' and didn't 'understand what they were looking at'.

"Knock it off Matt." Tani warned him after the fourth or fifth time this had happened and she'd apparently had enough. She sounded annoyed. "Jason can and will kick your ass if you piss him off. I'm going to get a water." She said gesturing towards a drinks table. "You two play nice."

She walked away and he waited the five seconds it would take her to get out of earshot on such a crowded street before turning to look at me.

"So," he said suspiciously, and I could hear resentment in his tone. "What up with you and Tani? Are you guys a thing?"

"What does it matter to you?" I asked knowing very well why he cared.

"I'm her friend." He said as if this gave him some kind of authority. "I'm supposed to look out for her."

"Yeah, I'm sure friends is what you had in mind." I said sarcastically.

"Like you're any different." He said flatly, but he'd flushed slightly.

"It is different."

"How?"

"Do you know the first thing she ever drew?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"What?" he asked looking confused.

"Do you know what it was?" I asked calmly, but feeling annoyed for the first time tonight.

"No. What does that have to do with anything?"

"I do. It was a picture of a cat and guess who it was for."

He shot me a resentful look.

"So?"

"So I've known Tani her whole life. If one of us has the right to feel protective of her, it isn't you."

He looked embarrassed and very angry, but before he could respond however, a scream from the nearest alley tore through the noise of the festival, and someone swore.

Everyone turned to see a terrified man and woman sprinting back to the street, both of their eyes wide, and stammering about something they'd seen.

I glanced at Matt and we moved forward to investigate, Tani, who'd been on her way back from the drinks table, not far behind us. Being taller than most of the crowd, I saw it first and stopped dead, shock going through me. Matt stopped too, looking something between disgusted and horrified.

"What's wrong?" Tani asked as she caught up, trying to push between us to get a closer look down the mouth of the alley which was now crowded with people, but we both held up an arm to hold her back.

People were whispering, obviously upset. A woman with tattoos and blue hair that had been running the nearest exhibit had put her hand over her mouth, looking as if she were about to be sick.

"What?" Tani asked, obviously wondering why she'd been held back, but then someone shouted.

"Oh my god he's still alive! Someone call 911! He's losing blood!"

"Let's go." I said taking Tani's hand and trying to pull her away.

"Shouldn't we try to help?" She asked hesitantly. "If someone's hurt…"

She was still glancing between the crowd. It was clear she hadn't seen and I didn't want her to.

"Someone's already gotten the medics." Matt said gesturing towards a couple of EMTs that were carrying a stretcher and shoving people out of their way. "I'm going to go find the others. You guys coming?"

"I'm going to take Tani home." I said as she hesitated.

"Yeah maybe that's the best idea." He agreed which surprised me. "It looks like they're shutting things down anyways." He looked at Tani. "We're not leaving until Monday. Think you might be able to-"

But he was cut off as a woman shouted.

"There's another one! Over here!"

We looked down the street to see her frantically waving and gesturing down another alley, and what had started as a nervous crowd, turned into a real panic. People were shouting now, running to make it back to their cars.

We lost Matt in the chaos.

"Come on." I said trying to push passed a news crew that had been covering the festival but were now looking for people who might have witnessed what had happened. I froze however, when I felt a pair of eyes on me.

I turned to see a disturbingly familiar face, the only one that didn't look scared. The vampire was unnaturally still unlike the rest of the people running around it. It had the same dark hair but unlike the last time I'd seen them, it's eyes were bright red.

It smiled cruelly, then vanished. I knew the blood sucker had run off and that there was no way to go after it. Not while Tani was here.

"Jason, I think you're right." She said looking around uneasily. She obviously hadn't noticed it, too distracted by the crowd. "We should get out of here."

"Let's go." I said looking around but the blood sucker was gone.

' _Chase_.' I thought.

' _Already on my way_.' He responded.

We both knew he'd never catch it, the vampire was long gone by now and it wouldn't need to resurface for a few days now that it had hunted.

How could I have let this happen?

Fear and fury at myself were coursing through me. It was right there, it had attacked two people right under my nose, how could I let it get away?

It was just like two years ago. This thing had me running around in circles, chasing it from city to city, only to gloat for a few seconds after it had killed, and disappear. I was so angry I was about two seconds from phasing and going after it just to finish the job, but I didn't. Tani's hand was still in mine. I couldn't leave her. Not if there was the slightest chance that thing managed to get passed me.

But with this thought came many others. Along with a sick feeling in my stomach as the fury I felt swelled into more fear.

How could I let it get so close to her?

'What were you thinking?' a voice said bitterly from the back of my mind. 'Lewis was right. You should have never left the pack.'

I knew this thing was after me, yet I'd gone anyways. Even worse, I'd brought Tani with me.

'What is wrong with you?' I thought in panic.

I was so desperate to spend time with her tonight, I didn't even think about the consequences. I'd told myself nothing would happen. That she'd be safe as long as she was with me, but all I'd done was put her in danger. I'd let it right to her. Her father was right.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah." I said as we stepped on to a much darker street, walking towards the lot where we had parked.

It was a lie. I was everything but ok.

"You look scared." She said obviously upset. "I've never seen you look scared."

"Let's just go home."

Neither of us spoke as we pulled out of the lot and hit the street that would take us back to the highway. She seemed to be thinking and I wanted to keep an eye out. It was dark and I couldn't phase. Right now, the vampire had the advantage.

Eventually, when we turned on to the exit, she spoke.

"You're not going to be in school on Monday, are you?" she asked quietly.

"No." I agreed and she nodded.

I could tell the shock of the situation was wearing off, and I could see some of the fear I was feeling was catching up to her.

"Alright." She continued and while her tone was calm, I knew she was still thinking. Obviously piecing things together which sent a new wave of panic over me. Suddenly, it felt the time I thought I'd had before I had to tell her about this, about my nightmare of a world, was running out. But before I could even start to think of anything to say, she broke the silence between us.

"I don't know what you're going to do." She said quietly. "And you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. Just… just promise me something."

"What?"

"Be careful."

She didn't sound upset anymore, but she was obviously worried. It felt like she was trying not to look at me.

Unlike the drive down, the ride back to La Push was almost entirely silent. Tani fell asleep after about an hour for which I was a little grateful, it gave me time to think.

I dropped her off at Rachel's where Nona had been waiting for her, then drove straight home, telling the others to meet me there. This meant I was unsurprised when I spotted them waiting outside my grandfather's house, turning towards me as I pulled into the driveway and stepped out of the car.

"I didn't find the vamp." Chase said as more of a formality than anything as we walked into the house and stood around the table. We all would have known if he did. "But I went back after the street had been cleared and most of the cops left. I found these."

He reached into his back pocket and pulled out two photographs which he rested on the table between the four of us. The same kind that we had found in my house and again, they were pictures of the victims, just moments before they were attacked.

I felt anger surge through me while Aster looked upset, and Lewis disgusted.

"This is sick." He muttered looking at the photos. "I know they're monsters but this is some next level kind of messed up. Jason, we've got to kill this thing." He said looking at me. "It's doing this for fun. More people are going to die if we don't-"

"I know." I said flatly. "We're leaving tonight."

"Where?" Chase asked.

"We're going back to Olympia, see if there was anything you or I missed earlier, then we're going back to all the places I tracked it to last time it was here. If it's not there, we're going keep looking. We are going to find this thing and we're going to kill it. I don't care what it takes."

"What about school?" Aster asked a little uncertainly. Unlike the others, he hadn't missed more than a few days to go hunting. "We missed most of last week too and I've got a history test."

"Does it look like I care about your history test?" I asked him darkly.

"But-"

"Aster, this thing is killing people." Chase said. "And it's going to keep killing people. It's not going to hunt and move on like the rest of them do. Do you seriously want that thing around here? Around Amanda or your family?"

"No." he mumbled.

"We've got to take it out." Lewis said his eyes narrowing.

"This might be a long trip. Is there anything you guys need to do before we leave?"

They shook their heads.

"Alright then, let's go." I said and we moved towards the door, but I held Lewis back. "Not you. You're staying here."

"What?" he asked in surprise. "Why?"

"Alex." I said. "We need someone around him still. Someone who can stay close while the rest of us are gone. You're in nearly all of his classes. You'll be around him more and if the blood sucker shows up, I need someone here that I know can kill it." I looked at Aster a little awkwardly. "I'm sorry. But he's stronger and been doing this longer than you."

"I'm not complaining." Aster muttered. "I'd rather be with you guys anyways. I don't want to deal with that thing on my own."

"Alright." Lewis said nodding and while I could tell he was frustrated he wasn't going to be in on the action with the rest of the pack, but he accepted the decision, knowing it made the most sense.

"Tell Rachel I said I'm sorry I'm missing her family's reunion tomorrow." Chase said looking at Lewis.

"Yeah, can you tell Amanda I'm not going to be at her sister's recital?"

Lewis nodded and then looked at me.

"Anything you want me to tell Tani while you're gone?"

"No." I said shaking my head automatically. "She'd probably just wonder why you're talking to her to be honest."

"Alright," he said and I was about to phase and tell the others to get moving when I hesitated, remembering how upset Tani had been as we left the festival. How worried she'd looked when she had told me to be careful.

"Tell her I'll be ok." I said and I could feel their eyes on me, but I was finding it hard to look at them for some reason.

"Alright." Lewis said and it was hard to place his tone, but it didn't matter. I didn't have time to figure it out.

"Chase, Aster."

They looked at me and I nodded towards the door.

"Let's go."

They followed me out the back while Lewis remained behind and I felt a surge of guilt go through me. I knew how much they hated splitting up when it came to pack business, especially when it involved a hunt.

"He understands." Chase said obviously picking up on the emotion. "It's the right thing to do."

Aster nodded in agreement.

"I know." I said with a sigh, but I didn't feel any better. Mostly because that wasn't the only reason I felt guilty. I knew that I was the pack leader, and in moments like this I wasn't supposed to be questioning what I wanted. I was supposed to take charge. But that didn't stop a very strong part of me, the part that had never wanted this, to be in Lewis's position. To be able to go to school tomorrow, to stay and be with the people that I cared about.

I didn't want to be the one leading the pack. I wanted to be the one left behind.


	20. Chapter 20

Tpov

"I can't believe you were there when it happened." Nona said quietly. She was looking out from the kitchen table where we were eating breakfast to the living room where her parents were watching a news story about the attacks in Olympia.

 _'As of right there are no suspects,'_ the anchor said as the TV flickered from a scene of the festival back to the news desk. _'The police are urging anyone with information about this truly horrific attack to come forward.'_

"Any idea what happened?" she asked looking back at me.

"No." I said honestly. "I didn't see anything."

Jason had made sure of that. I remembered the looks on his and Matt's face when they'd realized what had happened. Their expressions were both disgusted, but in very different ways. Matt looked scared, but when Jason had seen the first victim, he didn't look scared. He looked angry. As if it was something he'd seen before and he wanted to do something about it.

"God, I don't even want to think what might have happened if you hadn't had Jason with you." Nona continued bringing me back from my thoughts. She shook her head looking disturbed. "Why are there so many freaks in the world? What's the point in doing something like that?"

I shrugged.

"No clue. I don't understand it either."

"Well I'm glad you got home alright." she said still looking upset. "If something had happened to you..."

But we broke off our conversation as my mother stepped into the kitchen and spotted us.

"Hello ladies." She said brightly, but I noticed her eyes lingered on me for a moment. "How was dress shopping?"

"It was fine." Nona said a little awkwardly not meeting her gaze. Nona had spent most of last night at Rachel's, waiting to drive me home after Jason and I got back. By the time we were home, everyone had gone to bed.

"Well I'm glad you had a good time." She said opening the refrigerator and pulling out the orange juice. "You must have been out pretty late, we didn't hear you come back."

Nona and I looked at each other as my mother went to get a glass from the cabinet, judging by Nona's expression, she sensed something was off as well.

"Oh by the way Tan," she continued pouring herself a glass, replacing the carton and looking at me as she took a sip. "I got an interesting text from Mrs. Chang last night. You know, your friend Shay's mother."

I felt a pang of fear go through me as my blood went cold.

"She said you and Shay ran into each other yesterday. Something about an exhibit the school was doing in an art festival this weekend." She put her glass on the counter and looked at me expectantly. "Seems an odd thing to say, seeing as you were supposedly with Nona last night. Care to explain?"

Guilt flooded through me and I looked at the table. Next to me I felt Nona shift awkwardly.

"Can you give us a moment?" My mother asked looking at her.

"Yeah." Nona mumbled sounding extremely uncomfortable and quickly leaving the kitchen.

"So." My mother said sighing and taking the seat across from mine at the table. "You went anyways."

"Are you going to tell Dad?" I asked glancing at her to see she was frowning, but she didn't exactly look angry. I couldn't tell what she was feeling.

My father had gone out this morning, to get new tires for my parent's car before their trip back to New Mexico.

"Of course I'm going to tell him." She said in surprise. "But I wanted to talk to you first."

"Why?"

"Because this isn't like you." she said frowning. "You've kind of always been the perfect kid. Almost too perfect actually. Now you're hiding things from us and sneaking out. What's gotten into you? You never get into trouble."

This wasn't necessarily true. I could think of plenty of times I'd done something I probably shouldn't have that they'd never found out about. All of them years ago, and all involved the same person. The only person who could get me to do things without thinking them through.

"Why didn't you tell us you were talking to Jason again?" she asked softly.

"I dunno." I mumbled not meeting her gaze.

"We both know that's a lie."

"I knew Dad wouldn't like it." I said guiltily glancing up at her.

"Well maybe if you'd talked to him about what was going on instead of sneaking around…"

"I wasn't sneaking around!" I said indignantly but she raised an eyebrow. "Well not at first. But you saw how Dad reacted. He didn't even let Jason talk."

She was looking at me, her expression hard to read and while I thought she was still upset, what she said next surprised me.

"You know. I wasn't that much older than you when I made a friend my Dad didn't like." She smiled slightly, as if amused by the memory.

"You were?"

"Yeah." her smile grew. "He was a little older than me and my Dad couldn't stand him."

I looked at her, confused, and she continued speaking.

"I'd just gotten back from my year in New York before I went to school. He thought I should be focusing on my classes and that 'Professors were just after young college girls,' despite the fact we didn't start dating until my senior year." She rolled her eyes and I felt a shock go through me as I realized who she was talking about. "You know it wasn't until your third birthday that he admitted he might have been wrong about your father."

"Grandpa didn't like Dad?" I asked in shock.

"Not in the beginning, no. He didn't like Nona's father either."

"Why?"

"Because that's what Dad's do." She said with another sigh. "They protect their daughters from boys, especially when it's obvious that a boy likes them. And it's obvious that Jason does."

I felt my cheeks go crimson.

"I'll talk to your father." She said standing up.

"Wait, you're not mad?" I asked quickly.

"Well I wish you'd felt comfortable enough to talk to us about this." She said frowning slightly. "And you did sneak off. So I'm taking your phone while we're here. Nona will probably lose hers too, but no. I'm not angry."

"Why?" I asked completely stunned.

"I've been talking to your aunt." She said. "She's told me a lot has changed since we've been gone, and you're not a little girl anymore. You can make your own choices, within reason." She added giving me a significant look. "If you want Jason to be a part of your life again, then I trust you to make that decision. You just have to be prepared to face the consequences of if you do."

"It doesn't have to turn out bad." I said hesitantly.

"You're right, it doesn't." she said with a nod. "But do you think you can handle it if it does?"

I hesitated, but she didn't seem to require an answer.

"I'll let you tell who you want that you won't have a cell phone this week, but I expect to have it in ten minutes."

"Alright." I said knowing I was getting off easy. If she were my Dad, he'd already have it and it would be returning to New Mexico with him.

I put my dishes away and walked back to my room, grabbing my phone off the nightstand and texting Jason, Alex, and a few of my friends from California that still talked to me.

Most of them responded instantly, Alex saying he'd talk to me tomorrow at school, but Jason didn't. I knew it was stupid, I knew that after last night he would be busy, but I still waited the full ten minutes before walking back downstairs to hand over my phone.

As I walked, I thought about what she'd said earlier, about letting Jason back into my life and the possible consequences that might have.

'She's worrying too much.' I thought. 'She's right. You should be able to make your own decisions about who you are friends with.'

But was she right to warn me as well?

'No.' I thought stubbornly. 'She said it herself, things had changed from when I had left. Things between Jason and I, they're back to normal now.'

I hesitated before I pushed open the kitchen door where I heard my aunt and my mother talking.

Were they? Were things really back to the way things used to be when we were kids?

When we were kids, Jason was my best friend. I knew everything about him but now... Now there were so many things that surrounded him that were unanswered. I didn't even know if he was going to be in school this week, much less where he was or what he was doing there, and while I'd always wanted to be around him when I was a kid, how I felt when I was with him lately was very different. You didn't feel that way about a friend.

Maybe my mom had a point. If something happened, which if the past was any indication, it was very likely to, could I handle that feeling like I did now? What if it all went wrong again? What would I do then?

But just as I was starting to feel anxious, my phone vibrated and I looked down to see I had a text. It was from Jason.

I opened it to see he'd sent me a picture, one he'd taken last night of us in one of the exhibits that had used lighting and stained glass, causing our faces to be patterned with several different colors.

I read the message typed under it.

'Sorry I got you in trouble. Hope it was worth it. It was for me.'

I smiled and pushed open the door, almost cheerfully handing over my phone when my mother noticed I'd stepped into the room. I couldn't help but think it was worth it for me too.

Most of Sunday was spent with my family. My father still wasn't very happy with me when he got home, but nothing escalated, and it wasn't all bad. Alex dropped by to say hi to my parents and we ended up having a movie/game night.

"It could have been a lot worse." Alex said as he, Nona, and I talked in the hall before school started on Monday.

"It's awful." She said looking stressed. "I don't just use my phone to talk to friends you know. It's where I keep all my lists and it's where I've uploaded my calendar. I've got a ton meetings this week with the SCA, Honor Roll, and all my other clubs. And I've got a group message with my history project partners where we plan all of our study sessions. And it's got all my music on it." she added sounding frustrated.

"At least they're still letting you go to the dance." Alex pointed out.

"Yeah, that's true." She agreed. "I guess you're right. It could have been a lot worse. But speaking of the dance…"

She shot me a sly look.

"What?" I asked.

"You know exactly what."

"Will you give it a rest?" I said rolling my eyes as Alex looked between us.

"Am I missing something?" he asked suspiciously.

"No." I muttered irritably but Nona smirked.

"She's going with Jason."

" _Finally_." He said in exasperation and I shot him a look.

"Might I remind you how long it took you to ask her out?" I asked gesturing to Nona who beamed at him.

"That's different." Alex said.

"How?"

"It just is."

"You are so full of crap."

He grinned as the warning bell rang.

"I'm going to walk Nona to class. I'll see you in a bit ok?" he said.

"Alright." I said making my way to English alone as Alex walked with Nona towards Geometry room.

I walked into the class to see that about half the seats were full. Students continued to step into the room and make their way towards their seats as the English teacher, Mr. Hoffman, wrote the announcements on the board. Alex made it in just a few seconds before the bell.

"You feeling ok?" I asked in concern as he dropped into the seat next to mine. I hadn't noticed earlier, maybe because he was so happy talking to Nona, but he looked tired.

"Yeah, I just didn't get great sleep last night."

"Why?"

"I dunno," he said with a frown. "I was feeling a little weird. I think I might be getting a cold or something."

Just then, a few rows a head of us, Lewis turned to look at Alex. He shouldn't have been able to hear us over the noise of students taking things out of their book bags and talking to their friends, but for some reason I had the feeling he knew exactly what Alex had said.

I was a little surprised to see Lewis in school actually. Both Jason and Chase were definitely not here today, and while I didn't know him really at all, I hadn't seen their friend Aster either.

"Well hopefully it goes away before the dance." I said ignoring this and looking at Alex, but he waved away my concern.

"I'll be fine. I'll just go to bed early when I get home from work. It's probably what I get for reading web comics all night. Gear Gully updated by the way. Three new chapters."

"God I haven't read that in forever."

"Well you don't have a phone, you could catch up this week."

"Yeah, email me the link."

He nodded but couldn't say anymore as the lesson started.

The day progressed in a usual fashion, but while I knew Jason wouldn't be in art, I was still disappointed when I saw he wasn't there.

All through lunch I was distracted, barely talking to Alex and Nona who were making plans to go to the movies on Sunday after the dance.

"Oh cheer up small one." Alex said putting an arm around my shoulder laughing, which turned into a series of coughs as we stepped into the auxiliary gym. Usually, it was reserved for classes in the lower years, but we were squeezed in the school's smaller second gym today because the main gym was still full of decorations for the dance.

"Jason." He continued between deep breaths. "Will be back."

"Yeah I know." I said though I didn't really feel any better. I was still worried. I tried to ignore this though as I looked up at Alex. "Are you sure you're ok?"

"Yeah. I'm fine."

"Because if you want to go home, I can get a ride home with Nona and her friends."

"Nah, I'm good."

"Alright," I said unconvinced, but I knew there was nothing I could say that would change his mind.

The bell rang and the students separated into the locker rooms.

"See you in a bit." Alex said waving and jogging after Lewis.

I frowned as he and Lewis started talking as they stepped through the door and Alex laughed. Since when were they friends?

I continued to stare after them for a moment. Lewis was acting weird. He kept looking at us, more than Jason and his friends usually did. He seemed to be sitting closer to us than he usually did as well, making it a point to talk to Alex in every class we'd had with him today.

"You coming?" I heard, and I turned to see Rachel looking at me curiously and I realized that apart from her and Sarah, I was the only girl left in the gym.

"Oh, yeah." I said shaking my head feeling a little awkward as Sarah's eyes fell on me.

She didn't look upset but I had just been staring at her boyfriend.

"You ok Tani?" Sarah asked.

"Fine." I muttered.

"You seem kind of out of it." she pressed.

'Story of my life.' I thought, but instead of responding, I looked at Rachel.

"Yeah?" she asked and she seemed eager to keep the conversation going now that it was established. I was halfway to asking if she knew what Jason was up to when I stopped, remembering what had happened last time I'd asked her about this sort of thing. She obviously hadn't wanted to tell me the truth. Why would that have changed?

"Nothing." I said and walked into the locker room.

To no one's surprise, Lewis and Alex were chosen as team captains for dodgeball since Jason and Chase were nowhere to be found. I zoned out, thinking about where they might be as the captains stood in front of the class, ready to pick their teams.

I heard Lewis speak but tuned it out, ready to be picked last as usual, when the girl next to me nudged me.

"What?" I asked looking up to see it was a girl in my year.

She gestured towards Lewis.

I looked at him in confusion, wondering why everyone was staring at me.

"Wake up Tan." Alex said with a laugh. "You're on his team."

"Are you serious?" I asked and Alex nodded.

I looked at Lewis uncertainly, no one had ever actually picked me to be on their team before. I always just ended up somewhere.

I walked over to Lewis's of the gym as Alex made his choice.

They went back and forth until the class was divided and we separated to opposite walls.

"Why'd you pick me?" I asked looking up at Lewis who looked down at me, interested. "What?"

"Nothing." He said a little amused. "It's just, I think this is the first time you've ever actually spoken to me."

"That's not an answer." I said frowning.

"You're small." He said amused. "Makes you a harder target to hit."

His expression reminded me of Jason and the rest of their friends. The way they'd laugh when they were talking to each other, like they were all in on the same joke that none of the rest of us would understand. I felt a surge of irritation go through me.

Why were they so secretive? Why were they always deflecting my questions? Jason was my friend too. Why did he bother picking me if he didn't want to say anything?

"Jason said you'd wonder why I was talking to." Lewis said more to himself than me, but I didn't look at him. I noticed Sarah and Rachel, who were also on our team, looking at us intently and the question I'd wanted to ask Rachel popped back into my mind.

"Where is he?" I asked I said turning back to him eventually.

"You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you." he said and I felt another flash of anger go through me.

"Then what was the point of this?" I asked. Why did he bring up Jason if he wasn't going to tell me where he was?

"Because he wanted me to tell you he'd be alright."

"What is he doing?" I pressed but he shook his head and sighed.

"God I wish he'd just tell you."

"Then you tell me."

"I can't." he said. "He doesn't want you to know."

I glared at him.

"You know it's weird." He said grinning again. "You being so worried about him. I've never seen anyone worry about him before, not even his granddad."

"Should I be?"

"Jason's tough." He said dismissively. "He'll be fine. I can't think of anything that could do any real damage to him."

"What?" I asked confused but he didn't explain.

"Just don't worry about him." He assured me. "He's more concerned about you worrying about him than he is with himself. He'll be fine." He repeated confidently.

"And if he's not?" I asked quietly.

At this his smile faded.

"Well, he'd rather it be him than you." he said softly, looking away from me.

"What do you mean?" I asked quickly but a whistle blew and suddenly the air was full of dodgeballs flying across the gym.


	21. Chapter 21

Tpov

Despite Lewis's assurances, I spent the week worrying about Jason. He and his friends Chase and Aster didn't turn up once, and without my phone, I couldn't talk to him. I stopped by his grandfather's house twice but no one was home, and I couldn't stay very long. Not without my parents wondering what I was up to.

They left on Friday and while things weren't stellar between my father and I, he didn't seem as angry as he had been this weekend when they left and didn't say anything when it came out I was supposed to be going to the dance with Jason. Maybe my mom had gotten through to him after all.

So, after a strange but uneventful week, I found myself on Saturday evening, waiting with Alex by the front door of Nona's house, as she ran around the second level trying to finish getting ready.

"Nona!" I shouted up the stairs. "Hurry up! We need to leave soon!"

"Just a second!" she shouted back and I heard footsteps through the ceiling, obviously running.

I rolled my eyes and turned back to Alex.

"You look nice." He said smiling but I frowned. He looked extremely tired, and sort of pale.

"You don't."

"Thanks Tan. That's so sweet of you."

"Are you still sick?"

"Yeah. I think I have the flu. I threw up three times today already." He said and I felt my eyes go wide.

"What? Why the hell are you here then?" I said. "You should go home. You need rest!"

"I have been waiting since I was eleven for the chance to go on a date with Nona." He said stubbornly. "You really think I'm going to call it off now?"

"You're sick!"

"I'll manage."

"You're an idiot."

"An idiot with a date." He countered with a broad smile and I rolled my eyes.

Knowing there was no point in arguing, I made an exasperated noise but didn't continue.

"Are you riding with us?" he asked. "Or is Jason coming to pick you up?"

"I'm going with you guys." I said. "I don't think Jason's even going to the dance."

"What makes you say that?" he asked and I looked at him with a frown. I'd thought it was pretty obvious.

"He's been gone all week." I pointed out. "And when I called him earlier he didn't pick up. Seems kind of obvious he's busy."

I tried not to sound disappointed. I couldn't lie, I'd been really looking forward to seeing him, but at this point it didn't look like it was going to happen. Still, I'd thought he'd been looking forward to it. I felt my cheeks burn and I looked away from Alex.

"He'll be there." he said kindly and I knew I hadn't fooled him. "I've no doubt about that."

"What makes you say that?" I asked chancing a glance at him.

"'Cuz you're going to be there." He said certainly and while I expected him to laugh or to smirk, he didn't.

He put a comforting hand on my shoulder, but looked up when we heard someone coming down the stairs and his expression changed. "Wow." He said looking at Nona. She was wearing a light pink dress and strappy silver heels, with her hair done up with curls that Amanda had done earlier today. "You look beautiful."

"Thanks," she said beaming at him but it faltered. "Are you ok?"

"He's sick." I said giving him an exasperated look. "But he's too excited to go to the dance with you to use his brain so he's going out anyways."

She smiled but it was a little guilty.

"Alex, if you don't feel well you don't have to go." She said obviously trying not to sound disappointed like I had earlier, but like me she failed. "I understand."

"I don't _have_ to do anything." He said. "But I _want_ to go to the dance with you. Let's go ladies."

He offered his arm for Nona to take. She smiled and linked her arm with his after grabbing her coat, and together they stepped outside. Half amused at his excitement and half frustrated with his stupidity, I followed them out.

To no one's surprise it was raining and we took turns walking to the car with Alex who'd brought an umbrella.

I sat in the back as we drove to the dance, Nona and Alex talking in the front seats while I watched the rain hit the window lost in thought.

I didn't bother with the umbrella on the way into the school, but pulled my hood over my head and walked into the building, waiting for Alex and Nona who were slower because her heels were sinking into the gravel of the parking lot.

She wasn't the only one having trouble, several girls were clinging onto their dates trying to make it to the school.

"Now you know why I didn't wear heels." I said with a smirk but at this Alex laughed.

"Not that it would matter."

"Oh shut up." I said rolling my eyes and we made our way to the gym.

"Looks like most of the school turned up." Nona said brightly as we stepped into the room that was packed with students and the chaperones who'd agreed to supervise the dance. Next to us was a long line of coat racks for people's rain jackets and a snack table where cookies and punch had set up.

I looked around the dance only to feel my stomach sink with disappointment. Jason wasn't here and I didn't see any of his friends either.

"Let's get some pictures." Nona said happily gesturing towards the arch they'd worked on last weekend.

"You guys go ahead." I said smiling but I saw Alex was looking around the room too, and he looked back at me as I said this.

"We can wait until Jason shows up." He said obviously picking up on my mood.

"No it's fine." I said.

"Is he not here?" Nona asked looking around as well, her smile at the result of all her hard work faltering.

"I'm sure he will be soon." Alex said certainly. "But we can wait with you until he does."

"No," I said shaking my head. "You guys go. I think I'm going to get something to drink. Here, I'll take your coats."

"Are you sure?" Nona asked and while I could tell she didn't want to be rude, I knew she really wanted to go.

"Yeah." I said smiling again, though it felt a little hollow. "Go ahead."

"Thanks." She said hugging me.

They gave me their jackets and I went to put them on the rack, but as I went to take mine off I hesitated.

I looked around at the gym for a final time, feeling my disappointment increase as once again, I saw that Jason was nowhere to be found.

As I stared around at all the people and my eyes fell on Nona and Alex, who'd made it to the arch and were taking pictures together. They looked like they were having a good time and I really didn't want to spoil their night by third wheeling, being the awkward girl whose date hadn't shown up.

I glanced in all directions, trying to find one person I might be able to talk to while I gave Alex and Nona some space, but found no one.

More disappointment ran through me. I was in a room full of people and I'd never felt so alone.

I suddenly found I didn't want to be here. I found myself walking towards the exit without really meaning to, and with a glance over my shoulder to make sure no one was looking, I stepped out into the hall and walked away from the gym into the darker part of the school, my feet taking me automatically to where I wanted to be.

Jpov

The hunt after the festival was probably one of the toughest the pack had been on together. None of us had any contact with anyone on the reservation outside Lewis who kept us updated via our pack link, and I could tell it was taking a toll on all of us. Even if we couldn't hear each other's thoughts, I could see the others were tired. They wanted to go home, they wanted to see their families and the girls, and it was all made worse by the fact that we were making almost no progress. The vampire seemed to be one step ahead of us the entire time.

While we never spotted him, we'd all found photographs only to see that they were it's victims photographed moments before an attack.

But it wasn't just fatigue that was affecting us anymore. It was panic. I'd never felt this powerless or this torn. My instinct was clashing with my reason.

Part of me wanted to do what I'd done last time, just completely isolate myself and obsess over this monster until I cornered it, but another, very strong part of me wanted to protect the others. I couldn't leave them alone, and then as always, there was the force that was pulling me back to the reservation. That wanted to say 'screw this' and be around Tani.

I knew I had to be careful, I knew I had to be smart about this. I couldn't just take off and hope it didn't get passed me this time, but that was hard to remember when I wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. I didn't want to be doing this at all.

Though none of us said it out loud, we all knew despite the fact this thing needed to be caught and we all wanted it dead, we all also wanted to back this weekend to see the girls. Fortunately, we didn't need to make an excuse. Lewis, who'd been keeping an eye on Alex, said he'd been sick this week. One of the final signs that a wolf was about to phase. It was time to come home.

"We are so late." Chase groaned as we stepped into the school. "Rachel is going to kill me."

We'd been on our way back when we'd run into a blood sucker who'd given us a lead that I now was starting to think was bogus to distract us while it hunted. It had taken us a few hours out of our way and far out of signal range, by the time we got back to the reservation the dance had already started.

"Relax." I said amused. "No one shows up to these things exactly on time, I bet we're not more than a half an hour behind most of the people here."

"Easy for you to say. If your date's mad at you she's about as terrifying as an irritated hamster."

"Rachel isn't terrifying." Aster said frowning.

"You're not dating her." Chase said quietly. "She hates it when people keep her waiting. She thinks it's disrespectful. Like they don't value her time."

"She'll understand." I said. I'd known Rachel since kindergarten, and while she did have a bit of a temper, it never lasted long. Especially if it was directed at Chase. "Lewis told her what was going on. And besides, if she doesn't what's the worst that will happen? It'll be what? Five bad minutes? Then she'll get over it, she always does."

"I guess you're right." He muttered but he still looked nervous.

We stepped into the gym and looked around at all the people talking and dancing in front of the DJ stand.

"You made it!" a voice cried happily and turned to see Amanda laughing and throwing her arms around Aster who smiled and hugged her.

She was followed by Lewis, Sarah, Rachel, and Nona who'd been talking by the snacks table near the entrance.

"Hey." Aster said letting Amanda go and I saw Chase give Rachel an anxious look, but she smiled and kissed him on the cheek.

"Where have you guys been?" Nona asked looking at us.

"Got a little side tracked on the way here." I said looking around for Tani but I didn't see her anywhere.

"Speaking of missing people. Where'd Alex get to?" Rachel asked looking at Nona.

"He's feeling kind of sick." Nona answered. "He said he was going to the bathroom. I think he's got the flu or something."

I caught Lewis's eyes and I knew he was thinking the same thing I was. It was going to happen anytime now. It looked as if Alex had finally hit his limit.

"Did Tani go with him?" I asked.

"You know I don't know where she got to." Nona said frowning. "She said she was going to go get something to drink like twenty minutes ago, but I lost track of her."

She glanced around nervously and I grinned.

"I'll find her." I said amused. "I'm pretty sure I know where she is."

"Alright." Nona said looking a little relieved and smiling when she spotted Alex walking in. She was right. He did look sick.

"I'll see you guys later." She said walking towards him.

We nodded while the girls said goodbye. Aster and Amanda went to go talk to talk to some friends in their year while Rachel dragged Chase to the dance floor, but Lewis and Sarah stayed behind.

"I think you were right to call us back." I muttered glancing at Alex. "Keep an eye on him ok?"

"Will do."

"I'll see you guys in a bit. Let me know if anything happens."

They both nodded and I walked towards the far exit of the gym.

It was weird walking through the school after hours. Most of the lights were off, not that I had any trouble seeing, and the halls were completely empty. I turned out of the athletic hall to see, as I expected, one of the classroom doors was open, and light was pouring out into the corridor.

I grinned slightly and walked into the art room, seeing Tani in front of her current project, a flannel over her dress to protect it from the paint she was using.

She hadn't heard me walk in, too absorbed in what she was doing to notice much of anything really, but she jumped when I knocked on the door frame and she turned looking a little startled, but relaxed when she saw it was me.

"I know the dress code is pretty lax at this school, but I don't think they're going to allow you to wear that shirt at the dance. It doesn't even match your shoes." I said gesturing towards the tan flats she was wearing that looked ridiculous with the flannel.

"You nearly gave me a heart attack." She said sitting on the stool in front of the canvas she'd been facing. She wasn't wearing her glasses tonight, my guess is Nona had probably forced her into wearing contacts for once, and not hidden for once, her eyes were a brighter green than ever.

"Sorry." I said amused and stepping farther into the room. "What are you doing in here?"

"It's kind of loud in the gym." She said quietly.

"That's coming from you?" I asked. "How many speakers have you blown listening to your music?"

"That's different." She said shrugging.

"How?"

"There's just a lot of people in there." She said glancing in the direction of the gym, as if she could see it through the walls. "It's really not my kind of thing. So, I figured since you weren't there, I'd chill here."

"Sorry I'm late."

"Don't be. It was kind of nice to get away from Nona and Alex for a bit." she smiled a little guiltily. "They're getting to be a little much to be around lately. I'm kind of surprised you showed up at all."

"Why?"

"Well, you've been gone all week." She said looking at me. "I didn't know if you were coming back this weekend or not."

She didn't sound angry, but it was my turn to feel guilty. I'd been so busy thinking about keeping her safe, I hadn't had time to think about how disappearing after last weekend would look.

"I'm sorry." I said quietly. "I should have called."

"Don't worry about it." she said shrugging. "I know you've got more important stuff to do than go to a dance." She grinned slightly. "I don't really want to be here either."

"I do want to be here." I said stepping closer to her and she looked at me in surprise.

"Why? It's just a dance."

"Maybe. But at least I get to be with you."

She didn't smile like she usually did when I said something like this. She looked like she was thinking and though again she didn't look angry, it felt like she was upset.

"Are you ok Tan?" I asked her and she blinked, apparently unaware that she'd zoned out.

"What? Oh." She frowned. "Yeah it's just…"

Her sentence faded as she tried to put what she was thinking into words.

"Are you mad I haven't been talking to you?" I asked hesitantly but she shook her head.

"No, it's just. I don't really want to go back to the gym."

"Why?"

"I guess it's kind of stupid." She mumbled not looking at me.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

She hesitated for a moment, and now she did look a little upset, thought it was obvious she was trying very hard not to. She wasn't meeting my gaze, but instead picked a spot high on the wall opposite her and spoke to that.

"I don't like it when people stare at me." She said quietly.

"Stare at you?" I asked confused. "Why do you think people will stare at you?"

"They always do." She stated tiredly, shaking her head and gesturing towards herself. "Locker rooms, the pool, the beach, any time I wear a tank top." She sighed. "They all wonder what happened."

Realization went through me as she continued to speak.

"Nona picked this dress for me when she went shopping and, well. It's strapless." She sighed. "She must have forgotten."

She looked away from the wall and glanced at me.

"The second I go in there, people are going to stare." She went back to looking at the wall again. "I wish they wouldn't."

A moment passed in silence between us where I didn't know what to say. I hated seeing her this upset as much as I hated that I was the cause of it, but I stepped closer and took her hands in mine.

"You know you're beautiful, right?" I asked and she let out a short laugh.

"You don't have to try and cheer me up Jason. I know I'm not like Nona and her friends. It's stupid to be upset about it-"

"You are." I said cutting her off. "You always have been, and what happened to you doesn't change that."

She looked at me uncertainly, but didn't stop me as I brushed the flannel off her shoulders.

She closed her eyes as it fell off and winced as she heard it hit the floor.

"How bad is it?" she asked anxiously.

I didn't answer at first and when her eyes opened, they were nervous. She really did look extremely pretty in a dress that was as green as her eyes, and I found myself wondering if people really stared at her because of her scars, or because they wanted to look at someone so beautiful.

"Is it that bad?"

But she never finished her question. My brain had turned off completely causing me to take her face between my hands, lean down, and kiss her.

She froze for a moment, rigid in shock, but then suddenly the world stopped as she relaxed and the next thing I knew, she'd slid her arms around my neck and was kissing me back.

Finally, the pull I'd felt the moment I'd seen her since she'd come home had taken me over. The desire to be near her, always, had won.

Time seemed to be moving in slow motion and speeding forward at the same time. My heart was racing, sending shocks through me with each beat, and my emotions were running wild, but not in a way they ever had before. It was nothing like when I'd lost control in the past. This was way stronger, but I didn't feel out of control. Unlike my anger. I never wanted this to stop.

For once, I wasn't thinking about what the others were doing. I didn't care if Alex phased. An army of vampires could have swept across the state and I was perfectly happy to let them as long as I could stay here forever.

My hands fell to her waist and I lifted her to the counter that had the sink where the brushes were washed and she pulled me closer now that we were level.

I wasn't sure how long we stayed like that. I'd lost all sense of time, but eventually we broke apart.

Her eyes met mine and I could tell like me she was speechless. I smiled slightly, brushing a strand of her hair behind her ear and she smiled too, I guess it didn't matter. She didn't seem to want to talk either.

I pulled her closer, about to kiss her again when the door flew open, and we both looked over to see Lewis falling through it.

"Jason are you in- oh" he said cutting himself off as he spotted us. He suddenly looked extremely awkward. "Sorry."

"What's wrong?" I asked turning to him, it was obvious something was.

"Alex." He said gravely. "For sure this time."

"Alright." I said with a nod, trying to ignore the wave of bitterness that was rising through me. Of course it would be now.

I turned back to Tani.

"Stay here." I said and she looked confused.

"Why? What's going on? Is something wrong?"

"I'll explain later. Just promise me you'll stay here."

"Is Alex going to be ok?"

"Please Tani." I said a little desperately and the look she gave me was uncertain, but then nodded.

"Ok."

"Thank you." I said relieved and kissing her again. "I'll be back. Just stay here and stay out of his way."

"But-"

"Jason, we've got to go." Lewis said flatly.

"Ok." I said looking at her one final time before running after Lewis out of the room and back to the gym.

The second we stepped through the doors, I could see the dance had come to a complete halt. People were in groups whispering, some looking scared. The girls were around Nona who looked shocked and upset. The drinks table looked as if it had been run over with a steam roller, and I saw Aster helping Chase out of the picture arch, which seemed to have collapsed on to him. As if he'd been thrown into it.

"Where is he?" Lewis asked in panic.

"He must have gotten out of the gym." I said looking around.

"How? He'd have to get through Aster and Chase."

"It looks like he did." I said gesturing towards the arch. "We've got to find him. Let's go."

Leaving Aster and the girls to check on Chase, we ran back into the hall.

"Where do you think he went?" Lewis asked as we looked around the dark corridor for any signs Alex.

"I don't know but I'm guessing he's still in the school." I said gesturing to a locker to our right that had had its door punched in.

"Should we split up?

"No. Not if he got through both Aster and Chase. He's obviously out of control."

Just then there was a loud crash and someone shouted.

"Alex! Stop!"

My blood went cold.

"Tani." I said in horror and we started sprinting.


	22. Chapter 22

Tpov

I watched Jason and Lewis run out of the room feeling anxious. I was so worried, I'd almost forgotten what had just happened. But as a couple seconds passed and I was alone with my thoughts, the memory came back along with an increase in my heart rate, and something like fire going through me, clouding my logic and feeding off powerful emotions I'd never felt before.

He'd kissed me. Jason, the boy I'd known my entire life, one of my best friends, had kissed me.

I expected to feel weird about it but I didn't. My pulse accelerated again and I found it was a little harder to breathe as I realized, I wanted him to do it again.

I felt my cheeks flush as the memory came back to me. How fast my heart had been pounding, how it felt with his arms around me. I'd I never wanted him to let me go.

'This is crazy.' I thought shaking my head. 'You and Jason are friends.'

But this didn't feel like friends. No, this felt like something so much more than friends.

But speaking of friends…

I walked over to the door and glanced out into the hall a little uncertainly.

Jason had told me to stay here. Clearly whatever was happening was bad. He'd looked worried.

I hesitated, both wanting to stay and wait for Jason, and leave to look for Alex.

I compromised by hovering a step outside the door, hoping to see or hear something that might explain what was going on, my brain still battling itself, undecided if it wanted to think about Jason or Alex.

'Get it together.' I thought shaking my head. 'Alex might need you right now.'

But it wasn't Alex who'd come to find me tonight. He'd been with Nona and he probably hadn't even noticed I'd left the gym. Despite what I kept trying to tell myself, it wasn't Alex I wanted to be with right now.

I crossed my arms over my chest, still unsure what to do when I heard something loud echo down the hallway. Like a sledgehammer hitting metal.

"What the hell was that?" I asked stepping closer to the door feeling nervous.

I heard footsteps and looked up to see a tall figure, but it wasn't Jason.

Alex was staggering as he walked down the hall. He leaned against a door breathing hard, took another uneasy step, then collapsed.

"Alex!" I said in horror and, completely forgetting about Jason's warning, I ran down the hall.

"Alex, are you ok?" I asked falling to my knees next to him, trying to help him sit up. He skin was burning.

"Don't touch me." He groaned clutching at his stomach. He sounded like he was in pain.

"You shouldn't have come tonight." I said ignoring this and helping him to his feet. "You need a doctor."

"I'm fine." He muttered but his eyes were closed as he struggled to stay upright.

"But Alex, I think you're really si-"

"I said I'm fine! Get off of me!" he said throwing my hand away my hand and pacing restlessly.

"Are you ok?" I asked as his hands clenched in and out of fists. He looked upset about something.

"I'm fine." He repeated.

"But-"

"Leave me alone!" he shouted. "God you're just like Nona!"

And without warning he put his fist through the window of one of the classroom doors.

"What-what the hell are you doing?" I asked in shock. This wasn't Alex. The boy in front of me wasn't my best friend.

"She kept trying to get me to go home too!" he spat. "It's like she didn't want me here."

His hand was bleeding badly, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Why did she agree to come with me if she didn't want to go with me?"

"She did." I said incredulously. "She's just worried about you. You're acting like an idiot."

"Shut up Tani." He snarled, kicking a water fountain so hard, the pipe cracked and water sprayed everywhere.

"Alex! Stop!"

"You're just as bad as she is!" he said turning on me.

"Alex…" I said backing away from him in fear as he stepped closer, his expression he picture of rage. I'd never seen him like this. He looked nothing like his old self.

"You didn't want me to go tonight either." He accused his tone dark and full of suspicion.

"Because you're sick! Something is seriously wrong with you! You're-"

"Was this a game that you and Nona we're playing or something?" he spat.

"What?" I asked scared and confused.

"You two set me up!" he yelled grabbing my arm.

"Let go of me!" I said trying to pull away from him.

He didn't. His grip tightened the more I struggled.

"Alex! That hurts!"

"Good!" he shouted and I felt my self being thrown towards the wall.

I tensed, bracing myself for an impact that never came. Instead, something big but very gentle caught me. I looked up to see Jason.

"Are you ok?" he asked quickly as something slammed into the lockers that lined the hall.

Lewis had tackled Alex into them.

"Yeah." I said with a nod. "What's-"

But the moment he was sure I was alright, Jason had let go of me and was a good thing he did.

Lewis was thrown into a history classroom and crashed into the front row of desks as Alex pushed him off. He made to go after Lewis, but Jason had pushed him back against the lockers.

"Enough." Jason said, clearly furious, but his voice was calm.

"Get off of me!" Alex shouted trying to throw Jason like he had Lewis, but he couldn't.

I heard running footsteps and looked down the hall to see Aster and Chase sprinting into the hall, their girlfriends and Sarah not far behind. Both boys looked a little roughed up.

Aster went to help Lewis as Alex continued to struggle, while Chase went to back Jason up, but he didn't need it.

"Come with me." He spat furiously dragging Alex down the hall, and while Alex's body was shaking with rage, I was surprised to see that he listened.

"Chase." Jason snapped.

"Right." Chase said abandoning his attempt to check on Lewis and jogging after them.

"Lewis."

"On it." Lewis muttered looking sore, but after wincing for a few steps, he followed as well.

"Aster, take Tani home."

"Wait!" I shouted after them, but they were already stepping out of the nearest fire exit.

The girls had converged on me, asking if I as alright but I ignored them. I turned to Aster, who was watching his friends practically drag Alex outside.

"What's going on?" I asked and he turned to me, obviously unsure what to do. The girls were exchanging glances too.

"What's wrong with Alex?" I asked angrily.

"Tani-" Rachel starting in a calming tone, putting her hand on my shoulder but I pushed it off and continued to look at Aster.

"You know what's going on." I said surprised to hear my voice shaking, but it turned to a shout as I continued. "I know you do!"

"Look, just let me take you home." He started but I'd had enough of this. All of this.

"No!" I said storming after Jason and his friends. "He said he'd explain."

Jason had told me if I was ready to know the truth he'd tell me, and I wasn't going to waste another minute being kept in the dark. I wanted to know what was going on with Jason. I wanted to know what was wrong with my best friend.

"Tani, wait." Sarah said sounding panicked.

I ignored her.

"Just hold on a second!" Rachel said running after me but I'd already made it outside, determined to finally get some answers.

I stopped however, when I realized that I was alone.

"What the-" I asked looking around the school lawn. But neither Alex, nor Jason and his friends were in sight. They'd completely vanished.

"Where did they go?" I muttered to myself.

I heard the girls and Aster step out after me as I continued to look for the boys. They couldn't have vanished like that. I knew they were fast, but to completely disappear that quickly just wasn't possible.

"Alex!" I shouted as I continued to stare, knowing deep down it was no good. "Jason!"

"Tani, just come with us." Amanda said quietly. "Please."

"No." I said angrily.

"Look, we know you're upset." Rachel said. "But if you just-"

"No. I'm not going anywhere with any of you!" I said furiously. "I don't know what it is with you guys, but stop acting like you're my friends!"

The girls looked surprised I was so angry, Aster however, didn't.

"We just want to-" Sarah started but I cut her off.

"Help?" I asked bitterly. "For weeks I've been trying to figure out what has been going on with Alex and none of you could be bothered to tell me. Do you think I'm an idiot or something? That I don't know something is going on?" I glared at them. "If you really want to help, tell me what's going on. Now!"

None of them did. Aster looked uncomfortable and the girls all looked at me with the same helpless expression. As if they weren't sure what they wanted to do.

"Just leave me alone." I said bitterly turning away from them and going back into the school. "All of you."


	23. Chapter 23

Jpov

Alex finally phased around eleven at night but even with his unusual ability to control his emotions, it took another several hours for him to calm down enough to regain human form. By the time he'd finally relaxed, it was half past six in the morning.

"He's fast." Aster said sounding out of breath and looking at me. "Faster than you even."

We were all tired, and a bit beaten up. Alex was stronger than we'd expected. It had been a rough night.

"Unless I'm mistaken, we might be looking at a new Beta." Lewis said as Alex groaned and sat up, clutching his head.

"What happened?" he muttered groggily and looking over his shoulder to see nothing around him but the pack and trees. "Where am I?"

We'd managed to force Alex into the woods far away from any city or town while he tried to regain control. He had passed out almost immediately after returning to his normal body. This didn't concern me, Aster had done the same thing. Lewis had been so freaked out he phased again immediately, Chase had thrown up. It was a bit of a shock to take in, and everyone dealt with it differently.

"About five miles from the border." Lewis said smirking down at Alex who was still on the forest floor.

"Border?" Alex asked obviously confused. "Border of what?"

"Canada." I said shortly.

"What?" he shouted in panic and Lewis laughed.

"Shut up Lewis." I said annoyed. "It's not funny. I didn't see you laughing when you phased for the first time." I turned back to Alex. "Are you hurt?"

"No." he answered and while he _didn't_ look hurt, he looked scared. "Jason, what's going on? Why am I here?"

"You phased." I explained trying to keep my anger at him under control, but the others were shifting restlessly and I could tell I wasn't doing a very good job.

I knew it wasn't his fault. He'd had no control last night but it was still taking everything I had not to hit him. He would have attacked Tani if we hadn't been there. He'd ruined everything.

"What?" he asked still a little disoriented but I had to walk away from him in order to burn off some of my fury. "Phased? What does that mean?"

Aster took over.

"You know those old legends? The ones about the warriors that could turn into wolves?"

"Yeah." He said a little nervously. "What about them?"

"They're true." Chase muttered.

"What?" he replied blankly.

"They're true." I said turning back to face him. "You're a shape shifter Alex, we all are." I gestured towards the pack and myself. "And last night was the first time you changed."

He stared around at us for a good thirty seconds.

"Right." He said in plain disbelief, getting to his feet and rubbing his temples. "You guys are all shape shifters. And I'm one too. That makes total sense. That's not crazy at all."

"Just listen to Jason." Chase started but Alex continued talking, as if unaware Chase had spoken.

"My head hurts, what did you guys do to me? How did you get me here?" he glanced up at the morning sky and frowned. "What time is it?"

"Alex." I started but he held up a hand.

"Nope." He said shaking his head and starting to walk. "Tani was right." My heart skipped a beat at her name, but he continued. "I don't want any part of your weirdo little cult."

"Just wait." Aster started.

"Not happening."

"Will you hold on a second?" Chase asked going after him. "Let us explain."

"I don't want to hear it." he said still refusing to look at us. "Just point me to the nearest road. I'll hitch a ride home."

Aster made to go after him too, but I decided to take this into my own hands.

"Alex, stop." I said and he froze.

He struggled to keep moving, but it was clear he couldn't.

"What the," he started his eyes going wide then he looked at me. "What are you doing to me?"

"Jason's the Alpha." Lewis said quietly. "If he says something, you do it."

"Ok, you guys are actually crazy." He said still trying to walk away but making no progress. "None of us are wolves. That's insane."

"Let's just speed this up." Lewis grumbled, obviously irritated and without warning he phased. Alex shouted and backed away in surprise.

"What the-"

"Still think we're crazy?" Chase muttered as Alex stared open mouthed as the gray wolf in front of him.

"Knock it off Lewis." I snapped and he phased back to normal, chuckling slightly at Alex's stunned expression.

"What the _hell_ was that?" Alex asked looking around at us in panic. "What the hell is going on?"

"We told you." Aster said quietly. "We're shape shifters, all of us."

"You all can do that?" Alex pressed his eyes still darting between us, his voice shaking.

"Yes." I said flatly. "And you can too. It's what happened to you last night."

He ran his fingers through his hair.

"Ok." He said nodding and starting to pace. "Ok, I might actually be losing my mind." He took several deep breaths and looked at me. "I thought all of this, the weird stuff that was happening last night was a dream. What would Nona and Tani…" but he stopped dead, horror filling him.

"Oh god." He said his eyes going wider than they had so far, obviously pieces of last night we're coming back to him. "All of that-what I remember. All of that happened? It wasn't a dream?"

"No." I said quietly.

"They're going to hate me." He said horrified. "I need to talk to them. I need to get back and apologize."

"You're not going anywhere." I said darkly. "You're not getting anywhere near Tani until you can learn to control your phasing."

"But-"

"This is not a discussion."

"She's my best friend!"

"You could kill her!" I said so furiously, they all took a step back. "You almost attacked her last night. You would have if we hadn't stepped in. Could you really live with yourself if you lost control and something happened to her?"

I noticed Lewis and Aster exchange an awkward look. Chase scratched the back of his head avoiding my eye, but Alex was looking at me with a frown. Suddenly, comprehension seemed to dawn on him.

"It was you." he said quietly. "This was what you meant when you said I was more like you than I thought. You knew this was going to happen to me. You were talking about this, all of this." He gestured towards the pack. "What happened to Tani that night. The wolf she said she saw, she did see it. She saw you."

"Yes." I said darkly.

"You attacked her?" he asked horrified.

"No." I said and he looked a little relieved, until he heard what I said next. "I did hurt her, but I didn't mean to. I was out of control, but I wasn't the only thing in those woods that night."

"What do you mean?"

"She ran into a vampire that night." Chase said cutting in for me, obviously realizing that even now it was still hard for me to say out loud. "It was what triggered Jason's phasing. He managed to get it off of her, but it was his first time ever phasing…" his voice trailed off a little awkwardly.

But Alex still seemed to be stuck on the first part of what Chase had said.

"A vampire?" he asked blankly. "Excuse me?"

"Yes Alex, a vampire." Lewis said stiffly. "Filthy cold blood sucking shells of what used to be humans before they were turned. They're everywhere. And it's our job to kill them."

"I really am going insane." Alex said sitting back on the forest floor and putting his head between his knees.

No one really seemed to know what to say to him at this point, but his thoughts had joined ours now, and I could tell by how fast he was thinking he was still freaking out.

"Am I supposed to be hearing voices?" He asked hesitantly.

"The pack is linked mentally." Aster explained. "Can hear each other's thoughts."

"Of course we can." Alex muttered with a dry laugh. "Why not."

"Get used to having absolutely no privacy." Lewis said with a bitter smile.

Alex groaned and I could feel his embarrassment as his thoughts turned towards Nona, but I tried my best to ignore this as Chase turned towards me and spoke.

"Well, at least one of our problems is solved. Once Alex learns control, we can have the full pack together when we go after the vamp."

"What are you guys talking about?" Alex asked looking up.

"We're having trouble with a particular vampire." Aster explained. "It's really hard to track, and it's got it in for Jason."

"It's an evil son of a-"

"Wait, first you tell me I'm a shape shifter," Alex said interrupting Lewis's swear. "Then you tell me vampires exist, and now you expect me to go _looking_ for these things?"

"Yes." I said simply.

"Are you crazy."

"Get over it Alex." I said annoyed. "We all have to do it. You're just as unlucky as the rest of us, at least you don't have to make the decisions."

He shot me a slightly resentful look.

"Well can you at least let me borrow one of your guys' phones? I need to call my parents, and Nona's house. They're all probably worried about me."

"We're hours out of signal range, and your parents probably already know by now." I said shaking my head.

"How do you know?"

"Sam." The others said in unison.

"Who, Sam Uley? What is he like us too?"

"He used to be." I continued. "But you're not calling anyone. We've got a bit of a crisis on our hands. We should be out hunting for that maniac blood sucker now, but we can't go until you learn control. Otherwise it would tear you to shreds."

"But I need to expla-" he started but I'd had enough.

"Alex, you're not talking to Tani." I said furiously. "You're going to stay with me until you learn control."

"So you're just going to let her worry?" he asked sounding just as angry.

"Alex. I don't think you understand the position we're in." Chase said gravely. "We don't have time for the usual explanations. There's a vampire out there killing people now. And this isn't something you can just tell someone over the phone. Did you believe any of us until you saw Lewis transform?"

"I don't care."

"Everyone we care about is in danger. And we can't try and stop it until you learn control. If you would just think for two sec-"

"Shut up Chase." Alex snapped and we were stunned to see that he was forced to stop talking midsentence.

He continued for a second, struggling to talk, but eventually gave up still looking a little unsettled.

It looked as if Lewis was right, the pack did have a new second in command.

"I want to talk to my friends." He said glower at me and I saw he'd gotten to his feet.

It was obvious he'd realized he could make Chase do what he wanted, and he was going to try and challenge me. Well, if he wanted to make that mistake, I was angry enough to let him learn his lesson the hard way.

"Sit back down." I said stiffly and he resisted for a moment.

"Now." I said angrily and he was forced back to the ground.

The others were looking nervous again, none of us liked it when people were trying to change ranks in the pack and I wasn't putting up with his attitude anymore. There was a reason I was in charge.

"Alex, I don't really care what you want because like it or not, what you want matters very little now. None of us asked to be here, to be what we are, but you're one of us and to survive this you have to be like us. You have to do things the way we do. And that means you listen to me."

"But-"

"If you call Tani or Nona it will just make them want to talk to you. To find you and figure out what is wrong, and if you run into them, you'll be putting them both in real danger." I said forcing myself to stay calm.

"So you'd rather them worry?" he asked furiously.

"I'd rather them worry than be dead." I said harshly and he winced. "Look, you're not used to this I know. You don't know how strong you are and it is very possible that you could accidentally hurt the people you care about if you're not careful. Why do you think I kept injuring Tani when we were younger? Because I wanted to?"

"Seemed like it sometimes." He muttered but I ignored this.

"You're going to stay with us until you can learn control. Do you understand that? And if you so much as think of going near her-"

"Ok I get it." he said bitterly then as if he couldn't help himself, he added. "But she'd want to know."

"After you learn control," I continued ignoring this. "We'll head out and finally kill this thing. Then, if you can control yourself, we can talk to the girls."

"What about school?" He asked uncertainly

"No one will bother you about school." Aster said. "You're one of us now remember? Sam will tell them you're sick, your parents will cover for you."

"It's that simple?" he asked.

"Perks of putting your life on the line." Lewis said with a sarcastic laugh. "You get a bit of academic exception.

He put his head in his hands and rested his arms on his knees.

"What is happening?" he mumbled to himself sounding upset and a little scared.

The rest of us looked at each other a little awkwardly. Ordinarily, this wouldn't have been so difficult. We would have broken it to him gently, but we all knew right now we didn't have that kind of time. As he sat there, there was a very good chance that blood sucker was out hurting people, or back on the reservation possibly targeting the people we loved.

It was this thought, that made me say.

"Alex, get up." I said trying to keep my voice even.

He sighed and did was he was told.

"You three."

The others looked at me.

"Go back to La Push. Keep an eye on the news. If you see anything weird, disappearances, deaths, patterns in attacks let me know. Keep an eye out for this thing. I'll let you know when we're ready to head out again."

"You sure you don't want us here?" Aster asked.

"No, we need people keeping an eye out, and I think it might be better to give Alex some space."

"Alright." Aster nodded and with a quick glance at each other, they took off back in the direction of the reservation.

"This is a nightmare." Alex said quietly a few seconds after they'd gone. "I'd always wondered what you guys were up to, but I never ever thought it would be something like this."

"Yeah, well." I said darkly. "Welcome to my world."


	24. Chapter 24

Thanks for the favorites/follows/reviews! Hope you like the new chapter!

~secrethalfblood

Tpov

Neither Alex nor Jason showed up at school on Monday. Nona was furious. She kept ranting about Alex any time I was near her, as if I'd been able to do anything about it. I might have been his best friend, but neither of us had heard from him since the dance.

"I mean he just left!" she said furiously as we sat together at lunch away from the rest of the students. "I can't believe the way he was acting. I've never seen him like that before. And do you know what set him off?"

I did, she'd told me at least three times since this morning but I let her rant. It sounded like she needed to get it out.

"He started freaking out, just because I asked him if he wanted to go home early. He looked like he was going to throw up and _I'm_ the bad guy just because I was concerned?" she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at her pizza.

"And he stood me up for the movies on Sunday." She continued irritably, though if I was honest, that was the least of our worries when it came to Alex right now. I was surprised when she said she was going to the movies for their date last night. I didn't know why she expected him to turn up. We'd both called and texted him several times, and I'd called Jason twice. Neither of them had responded.

"This weekend was so horrible." She muttered darkly and biting a tator tot.

I noticed she was determinedly not looking at her friends a few tables over. They kept glancing in our direction, but Nona was refusing to meet their gaze.

"What do your friends say about it?" I asked and she let out an irritated noise.

"I don't want to talk about them right now." She said scowling at the girls and looking back at me. "They're being so immature about the whole thing."

"Alright." I said shrugging and biting a tator tot as well, but jumped when she burst out with.

"I mean they're _my_ friends, they don't even know Alex that well. They should be taking _my_ side, right?"

"You'd think." I muttered, fairly certain I knew where this was headed.

"But they didn't!" she almost shouted in exasperation and several people at the next table looked at us in curiosity. "They _defended_ him! Alex! Can you believe that?"

She looked at me and I knew what I was supposed to answer, but to be honest I wasn't that surprised.

"It's not fair." I agreed while privately thinking Nona's friends had acted exactly as I'd expected them to.

"Yeah." She said quietly, her anger turning into gloom. "I thought they were my friends, but when I thought they would be in my corner about this, they completely screw me over and take their boyfriends' side."

I didn't know what to say to this, but she didn't give me a chance try and come up with anything.

"This sucks." She muttered stabbing the Styrofoam lunch tray with her fork moodily. "I guess I know how you felt when Jason turned everyone on you when we were kids. Though that was way worse than this. Maybe I shouldn't be complaining to you."

"You can complain to me." I said. "You're right, this sucks."

"You haven't heard from Jason, have you?" she asked hopefully. "He was the last person you saw Alex with right? Before they disappeared?"

"Yeah." I said with a nod. "But I haven't heard from either of them."

"It's just so weird." She said glancing at her friends, but quickly looking back at me. "You know I thought you were getting a little worked up when you said you thought something going on with Alex and Jason's group, but the way they're acting lately, well, now I think you're right. It's like they're hiding something."

"How long have I been saying this?" I asked raising an eyebrow at her.

"Yeah I know, but I dunno. My friends didn't start acting weird until now." She sighed but then smiled. "At least I've got you."

"You're pint sized consolation prize." I said with a grin and she laughed.

"Don't say that about yourself," she said amused. "You know you're pretty much my sister."

"Just those pesky genetics getting in the way."

"Exactly!" she said her voice suddenly bright. "But we should stop feeling sorry for ourselves."

"You think?" I asked vaguely.

"Yeah, we should have a girls' night." She continued looking happier. "What are you doing tonight?"

"Studying for a math test." I said shrugging. To be honest I wasn't really sure what the point was. If I didn't have Alex's notes I was going to fail.

"Oh." She looked a little disappointed but as usual with Nona it didn't last long. "Well we should do it sometime this week. I can't tomorrow because I've got a student council meeting, but Wednesday would work."

"Alright." I said grinning slightly.

"We can stop by the store on the way home from school on Wednesday and get some snacks. We can make lemon bars like our moms used to when we were little."

"Sounds good."

The bell rang.

"Well I'll see you later." She said giving me a hug. "Chase and Lewis are in your next class. See if they know what's going on."

"They're not going to tell me." I said frowning.

"Well you can at least try." She said with a shrug as we broke apart. "But I've got to go to biology."

"Alright. I'll see you."

She waved and turned to walk towards the science department of the school while I sighed and walked towards the athletic block and the gym, trying not to think of the last time I'd been here. When things in my life made just a little more sense.

I quickly spotted Lewis and Chase, not that they were exactly hard to miss, and, after a depth breath, I walked over to them.

They'd been talking to each other, obviously waiting for their girlfriends to come out of the changing rooms, but they broke off their conversation when I approached, looking a little apprehensive. I could tell they'd been expecting me to talk to them and were hoping to avoid it.

"Hey Tani." Lewis started. He was more familiar with me than Chase seeing as we were in the same year, but I cut off his greeting.

"What's going on with Alex?" I asked and they looked at each other. "Where is he? Why isn't he at school?"

"He's sick." Chase said while Lewis nodded.

"Sick?" I said frowning. Well, I guess that made sense for why he was missing. I felt my suspicion drop slightly as it was eclipsed with concern. "Is it serious?"

"He'll be ok, but it's contagious. You probably shouldn't go visiting for a bit."

"Contagious? Is that why Jason's not here? Did he catch it when Alex was freaking out at the dance? Is this why Alex was freaking out?"

"Yeah." Lewis said quickly. A little too quickly and as I looked at him in surprise, I saw Chase shoot him a look out of the corner of my eye.

"Yeah." Lewis repeated his voice calmer. "You saw how sick he was at the dance. He must have been so stressed from trying to keep it together for his date that he just lost it. They'll probably be out for a little while."

"Oh." I said but frowned again. "Wait how do you know this? Neither of them are answering their phones."

They looked at each other awkwardly but before they could say anything, Coach Taffot had shouted.

"Mason! Go change!"

"See you Tani." Lewis said jumping on the distraction and they quickly walked away.

I watched them feeling suspicion rise within me once again. They were definitely hiding something.

"Mason!"

I waved to acknowledge I'd heard the teacher and made my way to the locker room.

'He was sick last weekend…' I thought to myself uncertainly as I stepped through the door. 'Who knows, he could have gotten Jason sick too.'

But as I made it to my gym locker, I passed Sarah and Rachel who looked at me anxiously.

'They're definitely hiding something.' Another voice said as I watched them. 'There's no doubt.'

Jpov

"Try again." I said extending a hand and helping Alex up off the forest floor for what felt like the millionth time today.

"This is impossible." He said sounding exhausted and bending over, resting his hands on his knees. "How do you guys do this so easily."

Since Alex had first phased, he and I had spent the new few days training him non-stop to control his transformations.

"Practice. Which is what you need to be doing." I said gesturing for him to stand. "C'mon, we don't have time for breaks."

"You know you're not this much of an ass around Tani." He said glowering up at me.

"I'm not being an ass, you're just having to learn this at an accelerated pace."

"Right, cuz some wacked out vampire is after you." he said rolling his eyes. "You know, shape shifting or not, I'm still not exactly sure I buy this whole vampire thing. What proof do you have to convince me vampires are really real?"

"You want proof?" I asked bitterly reaching into my pockets and tossing the pictures of the victims I'd kept with me since we found them. "There's your proof." I said as he frowned and looked through them.

"Wait, I know some of these people." He said flipping through them faster. "I've seen them. They were-"

"On the news. Yeah." I said bitterly. "And they're all dead. I'll give you a guess as to what killed them."

He continued to look at the faces of the victims looking upset.

"But if you don't want to believe me, go ask Tani." I said darkly. "She was almost one of them."

"I would." He said glaring at me. "If you'd let me leave."

I felt a surge of irritation go through me but I forced myself to remain calm.

"You know why you can't."

"I'll be careful." He said sounding angry and I saw him shudder.

"Does this look careful to you?" I asked gesturing at all the scratched and splintered trees around us. While Alex had remarkable control for someone who had just started phasing a few days ago, the clump of woods we were training in for the moment looked like a war zone.

The trees were shredded with claw marks if they hadn't been knocked over in his anger. Deep scratches gouged the earth, and soil was turned up everywhere.

"I'm trying!" he said furiously pacing away from me, his hands clenching in and out of fists.

"Well you're not trying hard enough." I said, intentionally making him even angrier.

"I'd be fine if you didn't keep pissing me off!" he shouted. "You're the one who keeps causing me to change."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah? And what if someone else pisses you off Alex?" I asked bluntly. "Look around you." I said pointing at all the trees. "Do you really want your friends or your family to see you doing this? Do you want to do this to one of them? I'm trying to stop you from-"

But he let out a furious shout and punched a nearby tree that cracked under his force.

"I know ok?" he yelled his body shaking even worse now, his knuckles bloody but already healing. "I could put people in danger! I get it!"

"Obviously not or you wouldn't keep asking me to leave. Don't be stupid Alex."

But suddenly, he lunged for me and it was no longer Alex attacking me. It was a massive white wolf. I swore, phased and caught it by the throat, pinning it to the ground.

'Get it together Alex.' I thought feeling just as angry.

'Get off of me!'

'Not until you phase.'

'How do I change back?' he thought in panic and I could hear his thoughts racing in my own.

'You have to calm down!'

He struggled for a few more seconds, trying to throw me off of him, but eventually went limp and his body shrank back into human form along with mine.

"Seems that things are going well here." Said a voice sarcastically and I let go of Alex to look up, only to Chase and Lewis stepping out from between the trees. It was Lewis who spoke, and he was smirking.

"Where's Aster?" I asked ignoring Lewis and turning towards them.

"It's his sister's birthday so he stayed behind, but we thought we'd drop by and see how things are going."

"Swimmingly." Alex said with sarcasm to match Lewis's as he got to his feet.

"It's about as good as we could have hoped for." I said quietly to Chase while knowing both Lewis and Alex could hear.

"Hey, Alex." Lewis called obviously picking up on my desire for a private talk with Chase. "Want to race to the river? I've been speed training since you've joined. I think I can take you."

"I know why you're doing this." Alex said with a scowl but it quickly turned into a smirk. "That being said, I'm still going to kick your ass."

They both started running Alex taking an early lead, but Lewis fazed.

"Oh come on!" Alex shouted furiously, swearing after Lewis, but after a few seconds he burst into wolf form and tore after Lewis. I knew it would take him less than thirty seconds to catch up. His speed was insane, it was almost too much for me to keep under control when he was really angry.

"He's a natural." Chase said impressed as he watched Alex disappear between the trees.

"Yeah, well I'd wish he'd be a little more contained." I said crossing my arms over my chest and glaring after him. "He's being kind of an ass."

"I think you need to give him a break." Chase muttered. "You know how freaky this is. He's worried he's screwed everything up with Nona, and he misses his best friend. He's terrified they're pissed off at him, and to top it all off you're forcing him to phase over and over again. I'd be pissed too. Part of me is amazed he hasn't tried to tear you apart."

"Oh he has." I assured him. "But you know as well as I do we don't have the time to take it easy on him."

"I know." He said quietly. "Speaking of Tani, you need to talk to her. She's been asking questions."

"If I could don't you think I would have?"

I wanted nothing more than to go back to the reservation and explain what had happened. To tell her everything, even if it meant admitting to her I was the one who'd given her those scars, but I couldn't. Alex was too strong to leave on his own with the others. I had to stay here.

"What should we do then?"

"What does she think happened?"

"We told her you and Alex were sick but I don't think she totally bought it. She's not stupid, and she knows weird stuff is going on. She knows there's something different about us, even if she's not sure what."

"We'll let her think that for now." I said with a sigh. "I should be the one to explain it to her, and the last thing we need is for her to go looking for Alex and stumble across him if he loses his temper. She seems to be a magnet for this kind of trouble."

"Yeah, I was thinking that too." He said with a slightly bitter smile but it faded when he caught my expression. "What?"

"Nothing, I was just thinking."

"About?"

"You know what." I said a little annoyed. I knew he'd asked out of habit, keeping up with the typical flow of conversation, but being part of the pack and the pack's mental link usually meant skipping this.

"You're worried about Alex." He said and I nodded. "Why?"

"Because he keeps trying to attack me. He's not listening nearly as well as he should be."

"He's new. He's going to be resistant to everything. We all were. You're just used to us doing what you say automatically 'cuz we know not to fight it."

"No, it's different." I said shaking my head. "None of you guys fought me like this. Not even Lewis and he's as stubborn as a senile bull. He keeps trying to challenge me."

"Yeah, well. You haven't been completely committed to the pack lately." Chase said quietly and something close to guilt surged through me but I tried to ignore it as he continued. "Maybe he senses that. We did."

"None of you are attacking me."

"We're not as big as he is." He said with a shrug.

"What do you think I should do?"

"Why are you asking me?" he asked with a slight laugh. "You're the one in charge here, I'm not even second in command anymore."

"You're still my best friend."

He hesitated for a moment.

"Just be honest with him. Try to make him see things from your point of view. He might not fight you as much if he understands where you're coming from."

"You really think that will work?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"Well not for someone like Lewis." He said grinning. "And you never had this sort of problem with me or Aster. Not to this degree anyways. But Alex is a pretty level headed guy, well when he's not having wolf rage."

"Which is all the time right now."

"Just try not to lose your temper with him." He advised. "I know this isn't a normal situation, but imagine how much worse things would have been for you if you grew to resent Sam. And he didn't even have the ability to force you to do anything."

"You've got a point." I said quietly as Alex toppled back in front of us almost smacking into a tree as he skidded to a halt.

"Did Lewis make it back yet?" he asked when he returned back to his usual form.

"Nope." Chase and I said in unison and Alex laughed.

A few minutes later Lewis appeared.

"Nice of you to turn up." Alex said with a smirk and Lewis glared at him

"I'm going to beat you eventually."

"Suuuurrre you will."

"Well we'd better go." Chase said over Lewis who looked as if he were about to respond to the taunt. "We're going to scour the afternoon news channels to see if anything weird crops up. We'll see you guys later."

"See you." Alex and I said in unison.

I waved them off and looked at Alex who was looking warily at me.

"Let me guess, more practicing?"

I sighed and looked up at the sky between the leaves. I couldn't help but be reminded of the painting I'd seen during the festival what felt like forever ago. The one Tani had done at her school before she came back to the reservation.

"No." I said eventually.

"Wait? What?" he asked in surprise and I looked at him.

"Not right now. Let's just go home for a bit."

"I thought you said we didn't have time for breaks."

"I'm making time."

I felt his thoughts drift towards Nona and then to Tani.

"If we're heading home do you think we'll be able to-"

"No." I said. "You're not going anywhere near the girls. You don't have enough control."

"What if you went with me?"

"We're not risking it." I said flatly.

"Fine." He said a little sulkily. "Then where are we going if we can't see them?"

"Somewhere with food."

Alex and I hadn't left the woods for days now. Chase and the others had been bringing us supplies by the backpack full but you could only survive off of granola bars and soda for so long.

"Can I at least get my cell phone? I assume I'm allowed to text my friends right?"

"Alright." I said quietly. "But if either of them ask to see you make an excuse ok? You're supposed to be dying of a disease of unknown origins, remember?."

"Right." He said rolling his eyes. "You too right?"

"Yeah." I said with a hollow laugh.

"You should probably text Tani too." He said then hesitated. "Doesn't it bother you?"

"What?"

"Lying to her." He said looking at me carefully. "Tani I mean."

While no one had actually told Alex about who I'd imprinted on, it wasn't exactly hard to figure out.

"Technically I haven't." I said trying to avoid the question.

"What? How could you not lie to her? How could you avoid it if you don't want her to know about all this?"

"The trick is to be very vague." I said sarcastically but he shot me a resentful look and I debated with myself for a moment, before continuing.

"I haven't had to tell her. Since she was attacked, well, she got a glimpse into this insanity." I didn't look at him but looked up between the trees as I spoke. "I think she's unsure if she wants to know the whole truth. Though, now that you're involved, that will probably change."

I tried not to sound too resentful about this. It wasn't Alex's fault he'd set all this into motion. In fact, it was a miracle he lasted as long as he did. Thanks to him, at least I had a shot of repairing my relationship with her.

"She cared way before I was involved with this." He said obviously catching my line of thought. "When she first got here she was constantly trying to figure out what was going on with you."

"Why?" I asked frowning and he gave me a patronizing look.

"You're just as bad as she is." He said rolling his eyes.

"What do you mean?" I asked but he walked away waving me off. "What are you talking about?"

"Nevermind." He said sounding amused. "Let's just go home and get something to eat."


	25. Chapter 25

Tpov

"What kind of chips do you want?" Nona asked as we browsed through the snack aisle of the local grocery store.

"Doesn't matter to me." I said but quickly added. "Just not that spicy stuff you and your mom always buy."

She laughed and replaced the bag she'd just reached for.

"Bland potato chips it is then." She said grabbing a different bag from the shelf above and dropping it into the basket she was carrying. "For your bland taste buds."

"Why am I bland for preferring food that doesn't make me cry?" I asked indignantly.

"Because the more you suffer, the sweeter it is."

"You are a glutton for punishment."

She laughed and we continued to walk down the aisle.

"So did you ever talk to Chase and Lewis?" she asked as we reached the refrigerated section and I pulled Jason's hoodie closer around me.

I didn't know why, but I'd worn it a lot ever since he'd let me keep it. Something about it just made me feel safe.

"Yeah." I said uncertain as to why, but feeling a little anxious as she continued.

"What'd they say about Alex?"

"They said he was sick."

"Jason too?" she asked and I nodded. "Have you heard from either of them?"

"No. But if they're sick they probably aren't really up for talking to a bunch of people."

We rounded a corner to where the store kept the precooked food they offered for customers and I was wondering what chick flick Nona was going to force me to watch tonight when she stopped.

"That doesn't look sick to me." She said flatly her tone cold.

"What do you mean?"

She gestured towards the side dish buffet where five boys were all laughing together. Each of them tall, strong, with short hair.

"Alex?" I asked in shock, barely recognizing him. Now that he'd cut his hair, he looked so much like the rest of the crew.

All five boys froze, their laughter dying as they looked at us, Alex looking just as horrified as I felt.

His eyes met mine but before any explanations could be made, Nona exploded with anger.

"WHAT THE _HELL_?" she shouted dropping her basket of snacks and storming over to Alex who backed away from her in fear. Everyone in the store was looking at her.

"Where the hell have you been?" she continued to yell as he froze. "I thought you were supposed to be sick!"

"Oh god." Lewis said running his hand through his hair while Chase put his face in his hands and muttered. "Not now…"

"First you freak out and ditch me for the dance on Saturday! Then you stand me up for the movies on Sunday! Then these idiots," she gestured towards Chase and Lewis. "Go around school lying saying you're sick, which made me worry about you and now I find out that you're not sick at all! What? You blew me off to hang out with your new friends?"

"Nona." Alex said the words tripping over themselves as they came out. "No! If you'll let me explain!"

"There is no explanation!" she said furious and she turned on Jason who was watching Alex but looked surprised to be addressed. "Aren't you supposed to be dying of the plague or something too? What the hell is wrong with you all?"

"Listen, Nona-" Chase started but she'd already turned and held up her hand to cut him off.

"I don't want to hear it." she said angrily. "C'mon Tani!"

She stalked passed me, not even bothering to pick up the basket of snacks which contents had fallen all over the floor, and continued to stride towards the doors of the store.

I didn't follow her, I was too busy looking at Alex who was watching her, horrified and what looked like heart broken.

He blinked and noticed me.

He spent a few seconds looking between the door that Nona had just gone through and me, then started forward but Chase, Lewis, and Aster all held him back.

He seemed to argue with them for a moment and then pushed past them only to have Jason grab his shoulder.

Alex looked back at him, a little desperately and said something I couldn't hear but something inside me shattered as Jason shook his head.

Alex looked as if he was going to argue, but Jason didn't give him the chance. He gestured towards small door on the side of the building, with a sign that read 'Employee exit only,' and pushed him towards it.

Alex glared at him for a full ten seconds, but then moved towards the door, shaking his head and avoiding my eye.

"No." I said quietly as suddenly, everything inside me went cold.

It couldn't be happening. Not now. Not again.

But it did. Alex walked to the door without looking at me and I felt sick as I realized Jason was watching him, his arms crossed over his chest, his jaw set, standing in the way I recognized. The way that meant he was going to get his way from someone no matter what it might mean.

Part of me expected a fight. Surely Alex of all people wouldn't be scared of Jason. He wouldn't let himself be bossed around like everyone else when we were kids, but he did. Alex glanced over his shoulder, first at Jason, then uncertainly at me. He shook his head, then stepped through the door outside and it felt as if my heart had been dipped in liquid nitrogen, then thrown onto the floor, shattering in a million pieces.

The others followed him, hesitantly at first and I noticed they looked at Jason and then at me before heading out as well.

All through this Jason hadn't looked at me, but as the last of the other three, Chase, walked through the door, he did. His expression was hard to read, but when his eyes met mine they looked sad.

Immediately I knew what was happening. Jason was taking Alex from me just like he'd taken everyone when we were kids. He knew exactly what he was doing and what it would mean. But even still, he wasn't going to stop.

"I can't believe you." I said my voice shaking with the rest of me as I turned and started to walk out after Nona. He'd taken the one thing I'd been absolutely certain he'd never get.

"Tani, wait-"

"No."

"Just let me explain." He said and I was surprised to feel his hand catch mine.

I didn't know how he'd reached me so fast, but I didn't care. I didn't want to know. All these secrets all the mysteries that surrounded him, it didn't matter anymore.

"Was this all just a game to you?" I asked turning on him furiously feeling my eyes narrow and pulling myself out of his grip. The people that had been looking at Nona we're looking at us now, and though I knew I was causing a scene I didn't care. I was too angry.

"What?" he asked quietly, sounding a little desperate but I felt no pity.

"Was this, all of this, your newest way to make my life miserable? Is this just a game to you? Was it a challenge to see if you could finally take away my last friend?"

"Tani-"

"No I don't want to hear it Jason!" I shouted. "I'm done!"

"But-"

"Just leave me alone!"

He froze apparently struggling with what I had just said.

"Please don't say that." He whispered.

"I mean it." I said without pity.

"Tani, please."

"I don't want to talk to you." I said feeling cruel at his expression, but too angry to care. "Leave me alone. Don't call me, don't text me, just go away Jason. Don't talk to me ever again."

It was hard to describe his expression. It was both miserable and blank at the same time. As if he was so upset, he'd run out of emotions to show. He didn't know how to handle what I was saying.

"Is that what you want?" he asked quietly.

I felt myself hesitate just for the slightest of moments, but then I remembered the way he'd pushed Alex towards the exit. Forcing him to leave. To leave me.

"Yes." I said coldly knowing it would hurt him but unable to stop myself. Not after what he'd done.

"Ok." He said softly not looking at me. "Ok, I'll leave you alone."

He shook his head miserably, looking completely defeated by life, something I'd never expected from him. He looked a little shell shocked, as if he wasn't sure what he should do next and I felt my anger slip slightly. I'd never seen him like this. Was I making a mistake?

"I'm sorry Tan." He said softly. "I really am."

I tried to think of something to say, but nothing came to me, not that it mattered. He'd already stepped out of the door after his friends.

A shock went through me as I realized that now meant Alex.

I felt tears form in my eyes and pulled my jacket closer around me when I felt another shock. I was still wearing his hoodie.

Part of me wanted to take it off and leave it right here in the store, but I couldn't force myself to do it.

Instead I pulled it closer around me and went out to find Nona, knowing that no matter how much part of me wanted him to, Jason wouldn't follow.


	26. Chapter 26

Jpov

The next week was quite possibly the worst of my life. I'd never been this disoriented. Nothing seemed to matter. I went through the motions of helping Alex control his phasing, and planning hunts to go after the vampire, not really seeing a point in any of it. If Tani didn't want to be around me why did I bother?

I hadn't seen or tried to contact her once, respecting her wishes, but I found myself outside her window several nights hoping she might look out and see me, if anything just to show her how sorry I was. How much I hated being involved in all of this. How worthless hurting her again had made me. But she never did.

While I was miserable, this was a different sort of misery than I'd ever experienced. It was worse than sadness. It was as if my body couldn't take the emotional distress it was going through, so it voided itself of all feelings just in order to deal with the pain of remembering how heartbroken Tani had looked, her expression one of utter betrayal.

My mood, or lack thereof, seemed to affect how I saw the world around me as well. Colors weren't as bright; sunlight didn't feel warm. While I used to like the sound of the rain when it hit the ground, now all the gray from the clouds did nothing but remind me of how numb I felt without her in my life.

Alex for his part, hadn't given up on his imprintee. He'd texted and called Nona obsessively any time we happened to catch a cell signal in the woods, which was rare, but that didn't stop him from checking his phone every three seconds.

He hadn't seen Nona either, but I could hear his thoughts obsessing over her. We all could, but imprinting seemed to give him a fresh desire to get his phasing under control. The one good thing about his imprinting at the worst possible time, was that it made him understand the rest of our point of view. He couldn't be around of the girls until he was under control. He now knew why none of us were willing to risk it. He felt the same way and it had strengthened his resolve to learn control as fast as possible. He was making progress faster than any wolf I'd ever seen.

"You should take a break." I said. Seeing it was almost winter, despite the fact the sun was out, there was frost on the ground around us in the woods, and my breath clouded in front of me as I spoke.

"Just one more time." He said panting his hands resting on his knees as he bent over to catch his breath.

"No, take a break or you're going to pass out again." I said sitting on a log next to the most recent bag of food Chase had brought us. I reached in automatically for a bag of beef jerky, but when I thought of eating, my stomach squirmed and I put the bag back down.

"You should eat." Alex said taking the bag himself and tearing into a piece of jerky.

"I'm good." I muttered.

"That's what you said yesterday." He said frowning. "You've got to eat something man."

He checked his phone and groaned when he saw there were no messages from Nona.

"You might want to stop bothering her." I said as he typed out yet another paragraph. "Or she's going to put a restraining order on you eventually."

"I can't help it." he said in frustration. "How do you stand this?" he asked running his fingers through his hair. "Being away from her. I'm going crazy."

"Because it's what she wants." I said quietly. "And it's better she stays away from me right now anyways. I don't want her anywhere near that bloodsucker."

"But-"

"Alex, if you're looking for me to give you a silver lining let me save you some time. There isn't one. The situation we're in sucks. But right now we've got a problem. That vampire is still out there, and it's smart. We need the whole pack to take it out and we can't go after it until you can learn control. We can try and make it right with the girls after we make sure they can be safe."

"How do we make this right?" he asked quietly.

"Why are you asking me?" I said frowning.

"Aren't you supposed to have all the answers?"

"If I knew away to make Tani stop hating me, don't you think I would have done it?"

"I guess you've got a point." He said with a sigh. He didn't seem angry like the others had been when he realized how hard things were going to be for him. It seemed like me, he'd resigned himself to accept his fate.

"Is it always this difficult?" he muttered.

"What?"

"Doing this," he gestured between us. "Being whatever the hell we are?"

"It depends."

"On what?"

"Who you are. What you want."

"You seem to hate it." he said and I looked at him a little surprised. None of the pack, not even Chase had picked up on how much I disliked being the pack leader. "Why are you still doing this anyways?" he asked frowning. "It's destroyed your life."

I hesitated, realizing I didn't have an answer. I'd been doing this for so long, I wasn't sure I knew how to stop.

"I never had anything else." I said quietly.

After my parents had died, while my grandfather hadn't hesitated to offer to take care of me, he'd been done with being a parent for almost two decades by the time he'd had to raise me. It was clear to me pretty quickly he couldn't replace my parents, and I'd been looking for the sense of belonging I'd lost with them ever since. First it was Tani but I'd screwed that up, then it was other girls and friends that I didn't really care all that much about, that knew I could never relate to because of what I was. So when Chase had phased, and so did Lewis and Aster, for the first time in years it felt like I had some type of family.

"Well you do now." He said and I knew what he meant. Who he was talking about.

"It doesn't matter anyways." I said forcing myself to eat as he handed me the bag of jerky. It had no taste. "Tani wants nothing to do with me."

"I wish I knew what to tell you. How to make this all right. But I've no idea."

"You're her best friend." I said a little desperately. "If anyone-"

"If anyone would know what to do it would be you." he countered. "No one knows her like you do, and besides, I'm not her best friend anymore remember? I doubt my help would do you any favors."

Neither of us spoke for a moment.

"Alright." He said. "I'm ready."

"Have at." I said tonelessly.

He stood and walked towards the center of the clearing we were in, and after a look of concentration a massive white wolf appeared in front of me.

The wolf barked happily, then Alex returned to normal.

"I think I've got it." he said with a look of pride.

"Seems like it to me." I said with a nod and picking up the back pack with our food. "C'mon. We should resupply and meet the others. Then we can have a few hours to plan and head out after the blood sucker."

"Alright." He said with a nod but I caught his line of thought and frowned.

"Leave Tani alone." I said shaking my head. I knew he was thinking about going over to Nona's house.

"Why? If I'm under control-"

"Because it's what she wants." I said softly. "She doesn't want us around her, especially not me or the best friend that I made betray her."

"So what?" he asked sounding horrified. "I just can't ever talk to her again?"

I shrugged.

"She's pretty forgiving. She might just need some time."

"Took you two years last time." He pressed. "Are you saying that I can't even-"

"You can talk to Nona all you want, though I'm not sure if she wants to talk to you right now." I said with a sigh. She'd been ignoring all of his texts and his calls. "Just, just give Tani some space right now ok?"

"Alright." He said sounding a little dejected but then hesitated.

"You can go if you want."

"See you." he said quickly then phased and bolted in the direction of home.

I had no doubt where he'd end up, hopefully Tani wasn't there.

I looked around at the clearing we'd been training in. I was alone in it and it was empty, just like I felt. Part of me wondered what was the point in going home. My Grandfather was busy today, meeting some friends at the community center while I was sure the others were off to spend what little remaining time they had before we headed out with their girlfriends, in Alex's case, probably begging Nona to talk to him.

I sighed and looked up at the sky. The sun was setting, but I couldn't appreciate the stunning colors in the sky. It had been a long time since I felt this lonely. I hadn't felt like this since Chase had joined me in this miserable world of wolves and vampires. The last time I remembered feeling like this, was the week after Tani left.

I shook my head and starting picking up the sleeping bags and camp gear Alex and I had been using as we'd stayed in the woods.

It took a few hours to get it all and drive back to the reservation, by the time I got home, it was night.

The house was dark and I assumed my grandfather wasn't home yet. I thought about going to Sam's house, I didn't feel like being alone, but I didn't really feel like intruding on him and his family. He'd moved on with his life, I didn't need to be bringing him back into my world when I didn't have to.

So, I took my gear out of the trunk of the car and put it in the garage, looking around at all the junk in here. Stuff that we'd saved over the years and forgotten about.

Boxes and bins were piled high around an old lawn mower, fire wood, and some of my old things from when I was a kid like a bike and a skate board. It had been years since I'd had time to do either.

A box caught my eye that was resting on top of my old dresser. It had claw marks on it from when I'd lost my temper and phased years ago, but the box was familiar. It was made out of colored card board and about the size of a pizza box, but was a little taller.

I took it off the dresser and opened it, to see several things that made me smile, but made my heart throb painfully as well. In it, were all things Tani had given me. Pictures of us together on her first day of school. My fifth birthday party, where she and my parents were laughing as she'd smushed birthday cake on my face. Things she'd drawn me over the years, I picked up one very familiar drawing, of a disproportioned animal that had been drawn with sharpies and high lighters, and looked more like a bumble bee than a cat.

Above it in big misshapen letters were the words.

'To the best friend in the world! Love, Tani'

I laughed slightly when I realized she'd written the Rs backwards. I'd forgotten that she used to do that…

I stared at the picture for a moment, then felt my smile fade as I put it away and spotted a second paper. This one a note. It was written by me years ago, but had never been given to Tani. I hadn't been able to face her, not after I found out what I'd done. And by the time I would have been ready to, she'd left for California.

Without really thinking I phased and found myself standing behind Nona's house, staring up at the farthest window to the right on the second floor.

The light turned on and I saw Tani pass in front of the window unaware of me in the dark. I sat on the ground ready to wait until the light went out, hoping even the slightest chance that she might see me before she went to sleep.

Tpov

"Uhg!" Nona said as we flipped through her movies. "Do I only have Rom Coms?"

We were sitting in our pajamas in front of the TV in the living room, surrounded by junk food and baked goods, looking for a movie to watch while her parents were out on a date night with another couple.

"Probably. That's all you watch." I said biting a potato chip. "Your phone's buzzing again."

"I know." She said making a noise of irritation. "It's Alex again."

"Why don't you answer it?"

"Because I don't want anything to do with men at the moment." She said tossing her DVD case back on the couch moodily. "They're horrible and we should start a girl band and move into your house back in California."

"We rented that."

"Then we'll get an apartment." She said. "In the meantime, do you have any movies?"

"I've got the extended edition of The Lord of The Rings." I said grinning and she gave me a stony look.

"Let's just see what's on TV." She said picking up the remote and starting to surf the channels.

We spent about fifteen minutes looking for something other than crime show reruns and infomercials, when finally, we settled on a corny horror movie from the 80s that we'd agreed to make fun of as we watched.

"I mean, who thinks blood actually looks like that?" she asked as the noise of a chainsaw blared out of the speakers.

"People in the 80s apparently," I said looking up the movie title and seeing its rating. "It got four stars."

"How?" she asked watching and stuffing popcorn into her face as the lead actress let out an over dramatic scream of terror.

The scene ended and a commercial appeared on the screen.

"I'm going to get a soda." She said hopping to her feet. "Want one?"

"Sure." I said but just as she made her way towards the kitchen, there was a knock on the front door.

"Who the hell is knocking at this time of night?" she asked annoyed, changing direction and walking towards the front door. And though I hated myself for it, I felt a surge of hope go through me. I knew one person who didn't care what time it was if he wanted to talk, but when I looked over my shoulder to watch as she opened the door, it wasn't Jason standing behind it. It was Alex.

"What are you doing here?" Nona asked coldly.

"Can we talk?" he asked softly. He sounded miserable, but he didn't even seem to notice I was here. He only had eyes for her.

"No." she said trying to shut the door but he held it open.

"Nona, just wait, if you'll let me explain-"

"There is no explanation." She said furiously. "And stop calling me."

"But-"

"Just go away Alex." She snapped. "Leave me and Tani alone."

"This isn't about her." He said a little desperately and I felt hurt stab through me. "This is about us."

"Us?" she asked incredulously. "You think after the way you were acting there's an us? After what you did to your best friend?"

"Nona, that wasn't me." He said a plead in his tone. "Well, it was me, but I wasn't right. _I_ wasn't me. But you have to let me explain."

"I don't have to do anything."

"Please." He begged. "I promise it will all make sense, just, just let me talk to you. Just for a little while. It'll all make sense I swear."

"What about Tani?" she asked looking back at me.

He looked awkward for a moment and I knew that this invitation was not extended to me.

"She'll have to talk to Jason." He said quietly avoiding my gaze and she glared at him.

"Goodbye Alex."

"Nona, please." He said softly his eyes meeting hers. "Just let me say what I have to say, and if you want me to leave you alone I will. I won't ever talk to you again."

"You'll stop calling?"

He nodded.

"Fine." She said quietly. "But this doesn't mean I forgive you. I just want you to leave me alone."

"Ok." He said.

"And I'm telling Tani everything you tell me."

He didn't answer this, but he didn't argue against it either.

"Let's go." She said grabbing her coat and looking back at me. "This won't take long."

"Alright." I said a little hesitantly, hoping to catch Alex's eye as he held the door open for her, but he seemed to be avoiding my gaze because he wouldn't look at me.

The walked outside together and while I expected them to stand on the porch, I saw out the window that they were walking towards his car.

Wondering if this would really be as quick as Nona thought, I turned back to the TV to see the movie was playing again.

I didn't manage to pay much attention to it. It wasn't much fun watching a corny movie by myself, with no one to help laugh at it with, so after an hour, I gave up and went up to my room wondering what was taking Nona so long. What could have happened to Alex over the past few days that would take this long to explain?

I turned on the light and went to my desk next to the window and started sketching my frustration.

I didn't really have a clear picture of what I wanted to draw but after another hour, I found myself staring at a familiar face, but not one I wanted to see. Why was I thinking of that thing? It was gone, it wasn't coming back.

But I continued sketching the arrogant good looks and black eyes, it's angular mouth curled in a wicked smile that sent shivers down my spine.

Finally, after another forty-five minutes it was finished and I had to admit Nona probably wasn't coming back any time soon.

I texted her to make sure if she was alright but I got no response, so with a sigh, I pushed my chair from my desk and made my way to my bed. But as I passed my window I hesitated, feeling as if a pair of eyes were on me.

I turned and looked out into the night but saw nothing. There was no moon tonight and it was extremely dark, but that didn't stop me from feeling as if something was there in the darkness, just beyond the light of the house.

I glanced at the sketch book anxiously.

"No." I said shaking my head.

It was gone. It wasn't coming back and if it did, well… I flipped open my sketch book again to the picture of the wolf and smiled slightly.

I didn't have to worry.

I was about to go bed when I heard the front door open.

"Nona?" I asked jogging to the stairs to see her hanging up her coat looking as if she'd just had a lot of information thrown at her, and she was still reeling from it.

"Hey." She said in trepidation.

"How'd it go?" I asked leaning over the bannister and she rubbed her temples. "Did you yell at him?"

"For a while yeah."

"What did he say?"

"He said a lot." She muttered wearily and I frowned. I couldn't help but feel that like Alex, she didn't want to look at me. She was fidgety, as if she didn't want to talk about this, and for some reason I couldn't help but be reminded of her friends Rachel and Sarah when they were around me. Like she wanted to say something, but couldn't quite figure out how to put it.

"Well?" I asked and again she didn't look at me.

"I-" she started but hesitated, closing her eyes before saying. "I don't think I can't tell you Tani."

"What do you mean?" I asked half way to walking down the first step, and while I wasn't angry, she winced as if I shouted.

"It's just." She started tapping her fingers together nervously. "It's just I'm not sure if you'll believe me. And it shouldn't come from me anyways."

"What do you mean? Of course I'll believe you. Besides, we're family. Who better for it to come from?"

"I," she cut herself off again, and took a deep breath before continuing quickly. "I think you need to talk to Jason."

I felt my insides go cold.

"What." I said flatly.

"Tani." She started desperately. "I know how it sounds, but trust me, he'll explain everything if you just- Tani, wait!"

She chased me up the stairs as I turned to walk back to my room, feeling anger and betrayal build up inside me.

"Look I know what it seems like." She said quickly as I tried to slam my door in her face but she held it open. "But it's not what you think."

"Just leave me alone Nona." I said coldly.

"Just talk to him." She said desperately. "It will all make sense if you just-"

"Go away!" I shouted pulling the door out of her grip and slamming it in her face my anger quickly spiraling into panic.

How could this have happened? How could she be on Jason's side? Alex was bad enough, but now Nona.

I'd never believed Alex would ever do this to me, but I'd never even thought I'd have to worry about Nona. It never even seemed an option. She'd always had my back. She was like a sister to me. She was my family. How could she do this?

I felt tears welling in my eyes and sat on my bed wiping them furiously. I had no one now. I'd come back to La Push thinking I was missing something, but now that I'd come back, I'd lost everything. Alex, Jason, and now my cousin. I had no one here. I had nothing left. No reason to be here at all.

I reflected on this for a few seconds before I grabbed my phone off my night stand, knowing what I wanted to do, but not sure if I wanted to admit it. But eventually, I dialed the familiar number and waited, hoping the call will connect.

"Tani?" said a familiar voice sleepily and I knew with the time difference, he'd probably already gone to bed. More tears welled in my eyes and before I knew it, I had broken down sobbing. "Tani, what's wrong?"

"You were right Dad." I said wiping my eyes and I heard my mother ask my father who he was talking to. "You were right about Jason, about everything. I want to come home."

And as my mother quickly grabbed the phone and demanded an explanation as to what was happening, I realized for the first time, 'home' meant somewhere, anywhere other than La Push.


	27. Chapter 27

Jpov

Four days had passed since we'd gone after the blood sucker and while we'd gotten within reach of it several times, it managed to slip through our fingers.

"We were so close!" Lewis groaned as we walked through Aberdeen to find somewhere to eat. It had vanished again for now and we were hoping to find a news channel to see if there might be any clues as to where it had gone. "Man, if I had one more second I would have had that thing's head off on one swipe."

He made a violent gesture as we all checked our phones now that we were within range of a cell tower.

The others were texting family and friends and I saw Alex looked surprised. He had what looked like seven missed calls from Nona.

I was surprised to see I had a missed call as well, I rarely had contact with anyone these days mainly because I was with the pack and Tani wasn't speaking to me. But when I opened my voice mail, I saw that Sam had left me a message.

"What does Sam want?" Chase asked curiously as Alex drifted away to call Nona back.

"Dunno." I said with a shrug. "Hopefully he found something."

I entered my password and played the message to hear Sam's voice coming through the speaker.

"Hey Jason. I don't know if you'll get this any time soon, I've no idea where you guys are at, but if you do my ranger friend just called and said there was another attack right near the reservation. You're going to want to get down here as fast as possible. From what I could tell it was definitely a vamp. I told him to expect you guys to go meet him out there and have a look around. He's waiting for you at the ranger station we met at last time."

The message cut off and I looked at the time it had been recorded. Just an hour ago, there was still time.

"We've got a lead." I said looking at the others who'd obviously heard the message. "Go get Alex." I said to Aster and we looked over to see Alex was looking upset.

"Jason!" he shouted covering the phone with his hand so he didn't yell into Nona's ear. "Come here for a second."

"We've got to go." I said shaking my head.

"But it's important!" he shouted.

"Aster, explain to Alex and meet us at the ranger station. Chase, Lewis, come on."

"But-"

We ignored Alex's protest and took off towards the reservation.

It was a long trip but no one complained, we were desperate for any leads we could find especially one so recent.

I expected for the ranger to be waiting outside like he had last time when we stepped out of the woods towards the cabin that served as the station, but he didn't.

"He must have been expecting a car." Chase said shrugging, obviously picking up on my line of thought, but the light was still on inside.

We were about to head in when we heard footsteps and I turned back to see Alex.

"Aster is coming. Jason, I've got to tell you something."

"Can it wait?" I asked a little uncertainly. We were kind of in the middle of something important.

"No." he said. "You need to get back to the reservation, now. You need to talk to Tani. It's why Nona called me so many times."

"Why?"

"Because she's leaving!" he said his eyes going wide. "She called her parents. She's leaving next week."

"What? Why?" I asked the vampire completely leaving my mind as horror spread through me.

"She said Tani thinks she took your side of whatever she thinks is going on. I guess that was just too much."

"Ok." I said running my fingers through my hair looking between the cabin and Alex, not sure what to do.

"Go." Chase said quickly. "We can talk to the ranger."

I was just about to agree when I spotted something taped to the door of the ranger's station. My heart sank when I saw it was small and square, and I knew what it was before, heart still pounding in panic, I walked over to the door.

The person in the photograph was one I recognized. It was the ranger, and it had been taken through the window of this very cabin.

Under the photo were the words.

' **TOO LATE** '

I pushed open the door feeling sick only to stop dead.

Hung all around the room on red string were photos. Photos of what looked like the victims of this vamp that dated back at least a hundred years. The strings crossed each other and wound around the furniture, making it so we had to bend and duck as we maneuvered through the small but open room.

"This is sick." Lewis said and he wasn't the only one who looked like he was about to throw up.

Alex looked disgusted and I could only imagine what was going through his mind. I didn't bother to check, I wasn't sure I wanted to know.

"This thing's a monster." He said as Chase looked sadly at a picture of a teenage girl and Aster seemed to be trying not to look at the photos. "Are all vampires like this?"

"No." I said coldly. "This thing is evil, evil even for them."

I continued looking at the faces, all happy and unaware that their lives were almost over. All so full of life the moments before their deaths.

All of them had the same had the same words written under their pictures.

' **TOO LATE** '

' **TOO LATE** '

' **TOO LATE** '

' **TOO LATE** '

The pictures seemed to sway, swirling around me as I looked from one to another, and I could almost hear the thing laughing, taunting me through the photos. Showing me all the people I hadn't been able to save. All the lives he'd destroyed, that I'd never be able to bring back.

It was almost too much. I sat down on the bed and put my head in my hands trying to just breathe, but the Alex spoke, and when he did, his voice was terrified.

"Jason."

We all turned to look at him to see he was standing in the middle of the room, bending down to pick up a photo we had missed but had a strand leading towards it.

"What?"

But he shook his head, apparently unable to speak. He simply turned it towards me and my entire body went cold. Terror clawed through me pushed along by the pounding of my heart as my lungs closed and I found I couldn't breathe.

Not for the first time, I recognized the person in the photo, but unlike the photo of the ranger, this picture hadn't been taken today. I knew the day it had been taken, because I'd been there. The girl was laughing, her green eyes shining as she looked up at someone. And I knew it was me. It was a photo of Tani at the festival.

Again, under the picture were two words, but they were not the same as every other picture in the room.

' **I'M NEXT** '

"It's after Tani" Chase said in horror.

"Find her." I said quickly. "Now."

But Alex was already out the door, quickly followed by the others. I ran out after them already in wolf form as I hit the forest floor, trying to ignore the pangs of fear going through me as I sped past the others, even Alex.

"She's alright." I told myself. "She's alright. It hasn't found her yet."

But the words were empty and I knew it. It was obvious that thing knew who she was, what she meant to me. How long would it be before I was too late for Tani too.

Tpov

"So," Nona said stepping into my room as I zipped my last suitcase and looked around at all the boxes I'd packed. "Is there anything I can say to change your mind?"

I ignored her. I hasn't spoken to Nona since I'd found out she and Alex were together, and she'd suggested I patch things up with Jason. Out of all the people to side with Jason, she'd hurt me the worst. I had nothing to say to her.

"I wish there was." She continued looking at her feet. "I dunno, maybe this will just make things worse. But for what it's worth, I still think you should talk to Jason."

I glared at her and she seemed to shrink under my gaze.

"Well, I guess I'll leave you alone." She said disappointed. "Have a safe flight. I hope you're ready to talk to me soon. I'm going to miss you."

She shook her head and stepped back into the hall closing the door behind her.

I looked at the door as it shut feeling a twinge of guilt go through me.

Was I being too hard on her?

But then a buzzing distracted me and I looked down to see a text from Matt. He'd be picking me up from the airport in California and I'd be staying with him and his parents until my parents could get a flight.

I smiled to see how obviously excited he was that I was coming home, but even just thinking that felt wrong and my smile faded. Was I really going home?

'Yes.' Said a voice. 'You fit in better in California way better than you ever did here. It's where you belong.'

But was that true?

I looked around my room and outside to see the dismal weather over the reservation and while everything about this situation felt wrong, I still wasn't sure what I wanted. I didn't want to be here but I didn't want to go either. What was wrong with me?

I made a noise of frustration and went to my desk ready to sketch until I fell asleep, trying not to think of this time tomorrow when I'd be on a plane leaving this place far behind me.

I plugged in my head phones and opened my sketched book only to feel a jolt of surprise go through me when it flipped open to a page that had obviously been torn out.

Frowning, I went through my sketches trying to think over the passed few days, then weeks, to see if I remembered taking anything out of here, but nothing came to mind. I continued to flip through the pages, making a mental catalogue of which ones I expected to see and which ones I found, but stopped at the ripped page, when I realized what was missing. It was the picture of the wolf.

I flipped through the end of the book to make sure I hadn't missed it when something fell out of the pages and I looked down in shock.

I picked up the paper and was surprised to find it had writing on it. It was a note addressed to me.

 _Tani, I know you probably hate me right now. If I were you I'd never want to see me again, but please, just let me explain. I'll tell you everything, why everything that's been happening has been going on and if you still don't want to see me I'll leave you alone, I promise. I'll never bother you again. Just please let me explain. If you want answers, I'll be at my parents' house tonight we can meet there. If you don't show up I understand. But I want you to know you still are the most important person in my life. Even if it might not seem like it now, you'll always be the person I love most. I probably shouldn't have waited until now to tell you that. I hope you come tonight. I'll be waiting._

 _-Jason_

I looked at the note. It was obviously written by him, it was his hand writing and only Jason would have said something like this to me, but something about it was weird. How had he gotten it in my sketch book? Was he the one who'd ripped the page out. But how could he? I hadn't seen him for days, and none of his friends had been around me. It was possible Nona could have done it, but why wouldn't she tell me he'd written to me? And besides, Jason said he'd leave me alone.

I continued to stare at the note uncertain what I wanted to do. If I was honest, I wanted to know what was going on but I wasn't sure if I wanted to see Jason or not. My heart seemed to constrict as I thought of him. This wasn't fair, why was he choosing now to try and tell me this? And why didn't he just call me like a normal person?

'Well, I probably wouldn't have picked up if he called anyways.' I thought vaguely as I put the note down.

I hesitated for a second, but then grabbed my coat.

What more could possibly happen? If I did talk to him, how much worse could things possibly get?

I walked out into the hall and down the stairs towards the front door.

"Where are you going?" Nona asked.

"To talk to Jason." I said not looking at her as I grabbed her car keys off the ring, not bothering to ask her permission to borrow her car.

"But wait," she said walking after me. "He and his friends-"

I didn't wait to hear he rest of her sentence as I stepped outside into the mist and pulled up my hood.

I thought I felt eyes on me as I unlocked the car and slid into the driver's seat.

It was dark and the drive took longer than I remembered, but when I got to our street, I saw a light was on in Jason's old house. I pulled the car in the driveway wondering why Jason's grandfather's car wasn't here. Ignoring this, I stepped onto the front porch and knocked but there was no answer.

"Jason?" I shouted pounding on the door and looking over my shoulder again feeling as if there were eyes on me.

I shuddered and pulled my jacket closer around me as I knocked again.

"Jason!" I said annoyed. Why did he bother telling me to come here if he wouldn't even answer the door?

After about five minutes I grew tired of knocking and tried the door. I found it was unlocked.

"Ok." I said a little creeped out as it swung forward, but stepping inside out of the dark night.

The light that was on was in the front hall, and I felt a sense of unease wash over me as I made my way through the house.

"Jason!" I called again. "I'm here! What did you want to tell me?"

A noise came from the living room and while there was no light on in there, I made my way towards it, wondering if he'd planned on doing some sort of jump scare.

'Well if he is he's getting slapped.' I though tersely. I wasn't in the mood for games.

When I stepped into the living room however, I froze feeling sick. Though the room was dark, from what little light filtered in through the windows from the neighboring houses, I could see that I was surrounded by my own artwork. Even pieces from California that were arranged artfully on the walls and on stands all around the room. My supplies had been brought from the shed at Nona's house. Brushes and paints were set up with careful attention to detail. There were even extra canvases and my jug of turpentine.

A man was standing at the far end of the room looking at a painting on a stand in the middle of the room. And it took me less than a second to realize that he was not Jason.

"You know you really are a talented artist." He said softly not turning to face me as he continued to look around at my work. "You could have truly been great. It's almost a shame if you think about it. Seems like such a waste."

I didn't answer. I couldn't. I knew that voice and I'd frozen in shock. When he turned, I saw that my nightmares had finally come to reality, as deep down I always had known they would.

I started to back away but he followed, his smile growing, evidently enjoying my fear.

"I've been waiting for this moment for a very long time my dear." He said and he vanished, only to speak from behind me. "I take it you remember me?"

I jumped and turned quickly.

"Good evening love." He said still smiling that insane smile. "Having a bad night are we?" he asked playfully, reaching out to touch my cheek but I pushed him away. His fingers were like ice.

"What do you want with me?" I asked knowing very well what he wanted but he hardly seemed to feel me. Instead he regarded me curiously.

"With you?" he asked with a sigh and looking around at the art. "I confess with you I want very little, but every trap needs bait doesn't it? And this is a very special trap my darling."

"What do you mean?" I asked confused.

"Do you realize how unique you are?" he said turning towards me and looking at me with a sort of fascinated interest. "You're the only one that _ever_ got away."

He looked almost exactly as I remembered him. Tall, disgustingly pale, with dark hair and dark eyes that were looking at me hungrily, but there was a difference. He'd been disfigured. His face was no longer handsome and perfect. Across his cheek and down his jaw were several jagged, familiar scars.

"I see you've noticed." He said his eyes hardening as he gestured towards the scars. "A gift from your boyfriend of course."

"What?" I asked mostly terrified but also a little confused.

He ignored this

"You know I tried to forget about you." he said stepping closer to me as I started to back away again, very aware that there was nothing but a wall behind me. "I knew that as long as you were around your stupid mutt I'd never be able to lay a finger on you, even if he was on his own. He was far too strong. And while I knew it was foolish, I couldn't help myself. I kept coming back." He looked angry for a moment. "You ruined my perfect record."

I didn't know what to do. It was obvious he was at the very least insane and wanted to kill me. But what I didn't understand was why he was dragging it out. If this went like it had before, we both knew he didn't have much time, but he kept talking.

"I didn't know why it bothered me so much at the time, and to be honest, I'm not exactly sure why it still bothers me now. But I guess it's true what they say." He mused. "You never know what you have until it's gone. All I know was the second you got away, well. I couldn't get you out of my mind little girl." He seemed lost in thought for a moment as he stared at me, but then blinked and continued his story.

"I never got too close of course, your dog made sure of that. But I thought I might be able to catch you on your own, away from him, but even with my abilities he was on my tail." His eyes went a light with a sort of thrill I didn't think was possible from a color so dark. "I've never met one like him before, and believe me," he smiled and it was cruel. "I've killed plenty of them over the years. But I had to be careful, so careful in fact, it took me months before I even realized that you'd left. Then even longer to track you down." He looked annoyed, but his smile quickly returned. "But I did track you down." He smirked and I felt myself trembling as he stepped even closer. "I found you, as I always do. But as I waited for the sun to go down, to finally catch you away from your watch dog, I realized something." He paused and looked at me, seeming almost disappointed. "What was the point?" he mused. "Where was the fun in killing such a small defenseless thing?" he glared at me with disdain for a moment. "The only thing interesting about killing you was that I couldn't. And without your dog, it would have been easy. Far too easy. You were so oblivious you walked right by me so many times that night and never even knew." he shook his head in dismay. "The game was only interesting if you were hard to get to. And then I realized, the only reason hunting you was ever fun, was because of him."

He gestured towards something on the wall and I looked to see the missing page from my sketch book had been placed in the center of a collection of paintings of the same massive, dark wolf. It looked like he'd collected every single piece I'd made about it since the day I saw it.

"So I left." He said with a shrug. "You were no longer interesting. I went back to have the show down of a life time, or an immortal life time." He added as an afterthought. "It would be the most interesting game I'd ever played, the only time the stakes had ever been high. But do you know what happened when I got back?"

He turned to me in exasperation, as if I was supposed to have known this answer.

"He was completely boring! He was just like every other mutt before him, made a few dog friends. Occasionally ran around with them looking for the lesser of my kind to kill, but the fire that had driven him, what had made him such an excellent player was gone. I was furious. First, I'd been robbed of the satisfaction of a victory by killing you, then, when I went to the only person who could give me that satisfaction, he was as great as a disappointment as you!"

He threw his hands in the air in frustration, and it felt almost as if he wanted me to agree with him. Even sympathize for him that he couldn't have as much fun as he'd wanted in killing me. This guy was absolutely insane.

"But it got me thinking. What was it about that first time I'd run into him that had caused a mutt so young, that had no business fighting me on his own, get so close to finishing the job? What had happened that night? What had changed, and then I realized." He said with a sly smile. "It was you."

He stepped closer again and my back hit the wall. But as my arm brushed against the desk next to the couch where my turpentine and brushes were resting, I had an idea.

"Don't you see how special you are?" he asked intently. "You are the catalyst. The one person that drove him to track down an enemy he should have never found. That made him pursue and opponent he should have been terrified to face and I was ecstatic. I knew how to get him to play again. But," he let out an irritated noise. "It was short lived. The euphoria lasted for as long as it took me to remember that you were gone. And without you, his drive had been totally lost. He was no different than any of the others. I had to get you two together to get him to play."

He scoffed and walked away from me, putting his hands behind his back as he walked around looking at the art.

"I thought about killing both of you just out of sheer irritation, but I didn't really see the point. After our first round, nothing without your dog at his full potential seemed interesting enough. I thought if anything I would wait. See if maybe that fire would come back. I dropped in every once and a while to see if he'd found someone else but he never did. I was angry with him and I was furious with you. While you spent your time painting, he was just meandering around, a mere shadow of his former self and he didn't even realize it! He didn't realize he was nothing compared to what he had been!"

He shook his head.

"I couldn't stand to leave things like this, but I didn't know what to do. But just as I was about to give up. Afraid my greatest game was over just as it had begun." He smiled and turned back to look at me. "You came back."

He moved so fast, I didn't see him until he was in front of me again.

"I could see the change in him immediately. The point around which his world revolved had returned to him and I knew I couldn't resist. I had to try. I had to try and take you from him. And here you are."

"You're insane." I said in disgust, too repulsed by him to be afraid anymore.

He ignored this and grabbed my chin. Tilting it up so he could inspect my face.

"You know, they say the wolves take it seriously when they fall in love. I wonder how terrified he is now that he can't find you." his crew smile returned. "I hope he does soon. I hope he gets here right as it's too late. When he just barely can't save-"

But I threw the turpentine on him and turned, praying no one had thought to clean out the desk drawers in the living room.

The man hissed an evil, animalistic sound of rage but I'd already opened the drawer and grabbed for the plastic object. I knew he'd be too fast for me to get away from, but that was ok. I needed him close anyways.

"What do you think you're doing?" he hissed as I turned and swung a fist at him.

He caught it as I knew he would, and I felt my wrist shatter.

"Nice try little girl, but don't mistake yourself as something that could ever compete with-"

But the lighter sparked into life and immediately the turpentine, and the man, went up in flames.

He shrieked in agony, and fell back onto the floor, the flames leaping from his clothes and spreading to the thinner that had fallen to the floor.

I tried to run, but was forced to duck as the man, already insane and driven even madder by pain, started stumbling around the room spreading the fire.

He was still screaming, and the fire was growing. First to the furniture, then to the walls, and eventually it clawed its way up to the ceiling.

The heat was something I'd never felt before, and quickly the room was filling with smoke. I looked around desperately, but there was nowhere for me to go. I couldn't see, but what I did know was that I was trapped.

The man continued to scream, and disappeared into the flames as I started choking on the smoke, I coughed as I stumbled around looking for a way, any way out.

The smoke was burning my eyes, I couldn't think let alone see. My lungs were burning. I couldn't even breathe. I staggered to where I thought the dining room was, only to shout in shock, wasting what little air I had left as a burning beam dropped in front of me, blocking my path.

The room started to spin. I wasn't aware of collapsing until I hit the floor. Even if I could manage to get back to my feet there was nowhere to go, no oxygen to breathe. All around me was nothing but flames.

Panic was flooding through me as I gasped desperately for air. How could this have happened to me? Was this is it? Was this how I was going to die? It wasn't fair.

But suddenly, there was an explosion of noise as something cracked and the wall next to me shattered throwing out splinters of burning wood and embers. Something massive forced its way through burning support boards and smoldering furniture.

I tried to call for help, but nothing came out.

The last thing I was aware of was a huge black figure standing over me, looking down with familiar dark eyes.

It had come back…

"Tani!" someone shouted in horror but darkness or maybe it was smoke, was eating at the corner of my eyes. And as something strong grabbed me and lifted me up in their arms, the darkness won out, and everything went black.

…

When I woke up, the first thing I was aware of was pain. My lungs felt like they were on fire and my head felt as if it was going to split open with each brain rattling pound that went through it.

I coughed and pain radiated through me.

"She's awake!" someone shouted in relief.

"Alex?" I asked opening my eyes and trying to sit up but I wished I hadn't. My lungs burned more, my head throbbed worse than it had in my ten seconds of consciousness, and the flashing lights weren't helping. I immediately shut them.

What was going on?

"Don't speak talk Tani." He said sound anxious. "Don't move, don't do anything. Don't even breathe too hard. Jason!"

At this I opened my eyes again and started to take in my surroundings. It was dark outside, but how did I get outside? Lights were flashing, illuminating what looked like a small army of cars, and about half the people who lived on the street, as well as other important people around the reservation like Sam Uley and many of the council.

I only noticed something was over my mouth and nose when I realized it was obstructing my view as I tried to look around to figure out what had happened.

"Tani, stay still." Alex said gently holding me back to whatever I was laying on.

It wasn't the grass, but I was definitely on the ground.

"What's going on?" I asked through the pain of speaking but another figure appeared over me.

"How is she?"

It was Jason, and I saw that his left arm and right shoulder were bandaged.

"Confused. I don't think she remembers what happened yet."

"What's going on?"

I tried to take off whatever was over my face, but several people shouted and rushed over. Only Jason seemed to understand what the problem was.

"It's an oxygen mask." He said quietly. "Keep it on."

I was too tired to argue but I became of a burning sensation in my arm and groaned.

"Why does my wrist hurt?"

"It's broken." Jason said softly. "You need to stay still ok?"

I tried to nod but immediately regretted it. Pain shot through me but when several people asked what was wrong, I ignored them. I didn't want to talk anymore. I heard Aster's and Lewis's voices from somewhere behind me speaking softly to each other.

"I can't believe she got it."

"Forget that. I can't believe she's alive."

Images flashed through my mind, unfocused and unrelated, but slowly, I started to piece together some of what happened.

"It's dead?" I asked and both Alex and Jason looked at me.

"Yeah." Alex said and I felt a hand take mine. It was Jason's.

"We made sure of it." he said softly and I let my eyes close as his fingers laced with mine.

"Good." I whispered.

Just then, a serious female voice said.

"Can either of you tell me who this girl is? What happened here?"

"Her name is Vitani Mason." Alex said.

"And how do you know her?"

"We're her friends."

"What was she doing here?" the woman asked. "The neighbors say that no one lives in this house."

I didn't listen to Alex's and Jason's explanation of what happened but eventually the woman left and I realized when I felt myself being lifted, that I was on a stretcher.

"We're going to have to take her to the hospital. Is there anyone who can contact her parents?" a man said but I didn't bother to look over to see where he was.

"I can." Alex said.

"You should come with us too. You've got some pretty serious burns."

"I'll be fine." Jason said but his hand didn't leave mine as I felt myself being moved.

It started to slip and I grabbed it tighter.

"Wait-" I started but Jason cut me off.

"I'm right here." He said softly.

I nodded ignoring the pain. I knew I was going to pass out again any moment, but I also knew I had to get the words out before it happened.

"Don't leave." I said softly.

"I won't." he said quietly and his voice was the last thing I heard before the world seemed to spin, and then there was nothing.


	28. Chapter 28

Jpov

A few hours, and several medical forms after I pulled Tani out of what was left of my parent's burning house, I found myself sitting next to her hospital bed, after refusing to be moved to my own room to be treated for my burns.

I knew the doctors were annoyed with me, not that I really cared. There was no way for them to know that I healed several times faster than the typical human. I'd be surprised if these burns lasted for more than a few days let alone a week.

"Still here?" asked a round, kind faced nurse who came into check Tani's vitals.

I didn't answer, but looked at her expectantly.

"Your girlfriend is fine." She said a little amused and I didn't bother to challenge the term. "She should make a full recovery, which is more than we can say for you if you don't stop refusing treatment."

"I'll be ok."

"Will you at least let me examine the wounds?" she asked.

"Will you stop asking if I do?"

"I can't promise anything, but it might help."

"Fine." I said allowing her to peel back the dressings and just as I expected her eyes went wide, but she tried her best not to show her shock at how quickly the skin was starting to regrow.

She checked her chart and frowned.

"They said you came in with second and third degree burns."

I nodded.

She didn't say anything, but walked out of the room still frowning at the chart. Almost immediately she ran into a doctor and although she was out of the room, obviously trying to be discrete, I had no trouble hearing her words as she whispered.

"You won't believe this, doctor. That boy who came in with the Mason patient, his burns are almost completely healed. It's the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Some sort of medical miracle..."

I sighed and looked around the room. I should probably get out of here, before they wanted to run some tests on the kid who healed freakishly fast, but I couldn't. Not while Tani was still alone. I couldn't stand the thought of her waking up to no one.

I sat back down on the chair next her bed and took her hand

"Jason?" she muttered softly, but her eyes didn't open and after a few more indistinct mumbles, her face relaxed and she dozed off again.

"I'm still here Tan." I said quietly.

This had happened several times over the last few hours. They'd given Tani some pretty powerful medication and a sedative to help her with the pain while she healed, and it was hours before she finally groaned and was fully awake.

"What… what happened?" she asked opening her eyes and looking around. "Where am I?" she let out another groan as she tried to get up.

"Slow down." I said softly, pushing her gently back to her pillows and she turned to look at me.

"Why does everything hurt?"

"You've had kind of a rough night."

Tani had been relatively lucky, apart from the smoke inhalation, a broken wrist, and a few minor burns, she wasn't in that bad of shape for being caught in a house fire. But she sat up quickly, and though she winced, she looked at me apparently very lucid despite the medications she'd been given.

"That thing. It was there. You said it was dead right?"

I nodded and she looked relieved as she laid back on her pillows.

"It came back for me." She said softly.

"It won't ever come back again." I promised.

"No," she said shaking her head apparently ignoring the pain it caused her and looking at me. "The wolf. Did you see it? It came back. It saved me. It was-"

"Me." I said softly and she frowned.

"What?" she asked confused.

"The wolf." I said unable to stop the words now that they were coming out. "The blood sucker, everything. It has to do with me. It's my fault Tan all of this. I'm the reason it was after you in the first place. Why you got hurt."

"What are you-" she started confused but her voice was cut off as the curtain that divided her room from the rest of the ER was thrown open, and a voice said.

"Tani! Oh my god my baby! Are you alright?"

Tani's mother burst into the room and tackled Tani into what looked like a bone crushing hug.

"I'm fine." She said wincing again as her mother pulled her closer. "Where's Dad?"

"He's in the front finishing up some paper work. We got a flight as soon as we could after Alex called. What happened?"

It was obvious she hadn't noticed me, too intent on making sure her daughter was alright to care about anyone else in the room, but this wasn't true for her father who walked into the room not five seconds later.

"What happened?" he asked glaring at me. "Why are you here?"

"Don't yell at him Dad." Tani said her voice still weak, but her mother had let go and both of her parents were looking at her. She still looked a little disoriented, but much clearer than she had been since she'd been admitted. "I think… I think he saved me."

"That's right." Said a voice and we all looked up to see a thin man with glasses, neat dirty blonde hair, and a white coat step through the door.

"I assume you are Mr. And Mrs. Mason."

Tani's parents nodded and the man shook hands with them both.

"I'm Doctor Smith, the doctor assigned to your daughter's admission. According to my chart here." He glanced at the clip board he'd picked up from the foot of Tani's bed smiled at me. "This young man pulled Vitani out of a burning house and has refused to leave her side since. She lucky to have such a brave man in her life."

"A burning house?" Tani's mother said in horror and looking down at her daughter. "What happened? Where were you?"

"I'm sorry," Dr. Smith said with what sounded like genuine apology in his tone. "I know you must have a million questions but if you don't mind asking them after I've examined her, that would make the process of her discharge to you much faster."

They nodded and remained silent as the doctor consulted his chart again and began asking Tani questions but when I rose to get out of my chair, thinking I'd better give the family some privacy, I was surprised when Tani said.

"Don't go."

Everyone turned to her in shock, then looked at me.

"You want me to stay?" I asked incredulously and she nodded.

"Alright." I said softly sitting back down in the chair next to her bed.

As the doctor continued to examine Tani, several people showed up including Nona, her parents, Alex, and Sam who'd come up with a pretty good cover story for what had happened tonight, which involved a stalker that had been killed in the fire.

Finally, after several hours, I found myself walking out into the hospital parking lot with Alex. While Tani had protested, saying she wanted me to stay, the doctor had forced everyone who wasn't family out of the ER.

"So," Chase said and Alex and I looked up to see the entire pack was outside waiting. "How's Tani?"

"The doctor said she's going to be fine."

"How'd things go with her parents?" Aster asked hesitantly.

I shrugged and Alex took over.

"About as good as they could have gone all things considered. But they didn't ban her from seeing him so I think all in all we'll call it a win."

They all made to pile in Lewis's mother's minivan which he'd borrowed for the ride to the hospital, but I hesitated as I was about to slid in to the back seat.

"I think I'm going to stay here." I said eventually, stepping out of the van and they all stared at me in shock.

"But the doctor said no one but family could see her until visiting hours." Alex said frowning. "You're just going to wait here for ten hours?"

I nodded

"Yeah."

"Are you crazy?" he asked and I shrugged, but then slid the door shut.

I knew they were talking about me as Lewis turned on the van and pulled out of the parking lot. I waved them off and went back into the waiting room.

The next several hours passed by slowly, people filtered in and out of the waiting room while the nurse I waited. Eventually, I saw a familiar face. The nurse who had worked last night had finally ended her shift.

She walked out and smiled when she saw me.

"Still here huh?" she asked.

I nodded and she laughed slightly.

"She's been moved to a private room for an overnight, just to make absolutely sure she's alright."

"Where?" I asked and she looked a little guilty.

"Well, I probably shouldn't tell you." she said but she grinned again. "Visiting hours aren't until five, but, if you just happened to be in the west wing. I think you'd enjoy a visit to the fourth floor."

"Thanks." I said smiling and getting to my feet.

"I didn't do anything," she said her eyes wide. "If anyone asks you were just walking around."

"Right." I said a little amused and walking towards the west wing of the hospital, looking for an elevator.

I wandered around the fourth floor for about ten minutes before I found the right room.

Mr. and Mrs. Mason were stepping out of it just as I stepped into the right corridor, and I hesitated for a moment.

Mr. Mason still didn't look very happy when he saw me, but Tani's mother, gave me a knowing smile and held open the door.

"Thanks." I said quietly and stepping through it.

Niether of them said anything as they made their way down the hall, probably to go and get some food after the long night, but I could feel Tani's father's eyes on me as I stepped inside.

Tani was asleep when I spotted her, and I sat next to her bed, expecting to be there for a while when I spotted something on the tray that protruded over the hospital bed and was usually reserved for medications or hospital food. It was her sketch pad, and it was open to a picture that she'd obviously been working on while she'd still been awake.

I looked at with interest, feeling a shock go through me as I realized that again, she'd been sketching me, as a wolf.

"I finally got the eyes right." A voice said softly and I looked up to see Tani's eyes on me. "I don't know why it took me so long to realize… they were yours."

"Hey, how are you feeling?" I asked quietly and she let out a dry laugh that turned into a series of coughs.

"Stellar." She said sarcastically and I handed her a glass of water that was on the stand next to her bed. "What are you doing here?"

"Came to check on you."

"But you were just here a few hours ago."

"If it were up to me I wouldn't have left."

She glanced at me and her eyes met mine.

"How did you find me last night?" she asked quietly.

"The note." I said producing it from my pocket and looking at it. "The one that the vampire left for you. It was still in your room. After I found out it was after you I went straight to Nona's house but she said you'd gone to talk to me."

"So you didn't write it?"

"No I did." I admitted looking down at it then crushing it between my hands. "I wrote it years ago. After the night I…" her eyes met mine again but I couldn't meet her gaze. I looked away before I continued. "Well, after the night you were attacked. The vampire, it must have been in my grandfather's house at some point, looking for something to lure you into its trap."

She didn't respond to this and still without looking at her I said.

"Tani I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" she asked incredulously. "You saved my life. You saved it twice."

"If it wasn't for me you wouldn't have been in any danger."

I glanced at her to see she was looking at me, but I couldn't read her expression.

"Look, I get that you don't want me around you anymore."

"What?" she asked sounding confused.

"All I've done is put you in danger or get you in trouble, if I were you I wouldn't want me around either. But when I found out that thing was after I just-"

"Who said I didn't want you around?" she asked cutting me off and I stared at her.

"You did."

"That was before I knew all this!" she said incredulously. "You can't honestly think that after everything that's happened, that I don't want you in my life."

"But… But this, all of this. It's my fault."

"It wouldn't have happened if I just let you explain." She shrugged and I looked at her in disbelief.

"So you're not mad at me?"

She shook her head, looking at me as if I were crazy.

"But I-"

"You saved my life." She repeated in a tone that said 'don't argue with me', and for a second it felt like I was talking to Rachel. "That's all that matters."

There was a moment where we looked at each other, but then a doctor walked in looking a little annoyed.

"Excuse me young man."

I stood and he looked far less confident, but held his ground.

"It's not visiting hours and this patient needs rest. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"I'm fine." Tani protested but I shook my head.

"It's alright. I'll come back and see you later alright?"

She nodded and after a second of hesitation, I stepped out of the room being escorted back to the hospital entrance by the doctor who continued to look irritable all the way towards the doors.

I stepped outside. It was a cold, cloudy day. Rain was falling but I smiled as I looked around.

I didn't know why I was smiling. It was freezing, I didn't have a ride home, and the past twenty-four hours had been horrifying. But it was over now. The blood sucker was dead, we didn't have to worry about Alex anymore, and best of all, Tani didn't hate me. I'd been so sure she would. I thought after everything that had happened, the second she learned the truth she wouldn't want anything to do with me, but I'd been wrong.

I walked out into the rain, hardly feeling the drops, looking around to see if anyone was watching, then phased, running back to the reservation, feeling freer than I had in years.


	29. Chapter 29

Tpov

It took several days after I left the hospital for things in my life to get sorted out, not least because my parents had expected to take me back with them when they left, but I no longer wanted to leave La Push. While I could tell my father was still suspicious of Jason, he'd warmed up considerably to him after he'd found out Jason was the one who'd saved me from the house fire, and I'd explained the night I'd called him so upset had been a misunderstanding. Still, it was almost a week after I'd been sent home from the hospital that I was able to see Jason again.

Alex and Nona had been telling me about Jason, the pack, and what it all meant. They'd explained everything, including something they'd called imprinting which was why they were still together, and apparently had happened between Jason and me. I wasn't exactly sure what to think about the whole situation, all I knew was that it was true that I felt a need to have Jason in my life. I'd always had though. I wasn't sure how much the 'imprinting' changed anything.

It was a cold, sunny day, and he'd agreed to meet me on our old street. I felt my stomach clench with nerves as I pulled into his old drive way and parked Nona's car.

He'd gotten there before me. I pulled my jacket collar up before I stepped out into the cold morning air and walked over to him.

He didn't turn to face me when I stopped. He was too busy looking at the skeleton of charred wood that was all that was left of his childhood home.

"Hey." I said a little awkwardly.

He didn't look at me again as he responded, still staring at the blackened wood.

"Hey. How are you feeling?"

"I'm ok, still coughing a bit. But a lot better."

"That's good." He said with a nod and while it sounded sincere, he seemed to be in a strange mood. As he continued to avoid eye contact, I couldn't help but feel as if the reality of what had happened last week had set in, and he was angry at me.

"I'm sorry." I said quietly, my breath clouding in front of me as I looked away from the depressing scene.

"What?" he asked sounding confused and this time he did look at me.

"I'm sorry." I repeated unable to meet his gaze.

"You're sorry?" Jason asked incredulously and I nodded. "Why on earth are you sorry?"

"I burned down your house." I said and he continued to stare at me, as if he couldn't quite believe his ears.

"I almost got you killed. If anyone should be apologizing it's me."

"Yeah but…"

"It's just a house." He said quietly his eyes sliding over the burnt pillars of the porch. "It can be rebuilt."

"I know. Still-"

"Tani, I'd burn it a million times if the alternative was losing you."

He hadn't been emotional as he said it, but stated it like it was a fact which almost made me even more uncomfortable. It was like there was no doubt in his mind when he'd said it.

"Why do I have the feeling you'd say that about a lot of stuff?"

"Because it's true." He said shrugging, looking away from the house and at me. "Can you really think after all this, that I could choose to live without you?"

"So the stuff that Nona and Alex have been telling me, and what that thing was saying. All of it was true?"

"Of course it was true. It was true before all this happened. Even when we were little. You were always the person I loved most. The one I didn't want to live without."

"And now?"

"Well, I'd understand if you don't want me around." He said gesturing vaguely towards the house. "But for my own selfish reasons I'd like to be."

"Oh yeah?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah. If you haven't noticed Tan, you're kind of catastrophe prone. I thought staying away from you might stop it, but you seem to run into trouble if I'm around you or not. I mean, I'd prefer to be there when you need someone to pull you out of a burning building."

"So you like your friends three dimensional and not burnt to a crisp?"

"Yeah." He said with a slight laugh. I had expected this conversation to go a lot differently. I'd expected it to be serious, maybe a little more emotional, but now that everything was out in the open, I finally felt that things were back to the way they should be between us. When we knew everything about each other. There wasn't a need for a long meaningful talk, or deep emotions. We were passed that. We knew what we meant to each other, and looking back, well, It was kind of funny, albeit in horrifying sort of way.

"So where does that leave you and me?" I asked hesitantly.

"You know, I don't really know." He said but his arm went around my shoulders and he pulled me closer to him. It was nice to feel the heat radiating from him in the cold, but it was a platonic gesture made all the more obvious when he smirked as he continued. "Is this the part where you ask me out? Because if it is, you're not off to a very good start. I prefer to be wooed with flowers and I'll warn you, I'm not a cheap date."

"Really?" I asked in surprise.

"Yeah. I mean tents are expensive. Same with sleeping bags, god forbid you spring for the luxury of a sleeping pad. But only if you really want to impress me."

"Camping is not a date."

"You want to go this weekend?"

"It's going to be freezing!"

"A fever of one hundred and five is considered low for me. Do you really think you'll freeze?"

"It's still not a date." I countered stubbornly but putting my arm around him as well.

"Who cares?"

"I'm pretty sure Nona and the other girls do. I have a feeling they're going to interrogate me as soon as I see them." I said my voice dark and he laughed.

"And what are you going to tell them?" he asked looking down at me with interest.

"I've no idea." I sighed. Things had been so crazy lately. I was still trying to figure out what my feelings for him were exactly. Everything had been so confusing, and was happening so fast, I wasn't really sure I understood it all completely. I knew I wanted to be around him, that was certain, I always had. As a friend or a girlfriend however, that I wasn't so sure about.

"We don't have to tell them anything." He said grinning. "We can just hang out."

"Really?" I asked in relief.

"Yeah."

"And you're ok with that?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, I'm sorry, but your friends are kind of all over each other. Isn't that how the whole imprinting thing works?"

He laughed.

"I always thought that was really annoying actually." He said amused. "But I like hanging out with you. I missed being your friend. With all this insanity, it seemed like we skipped a lot of that part."

"Yeah." I agreed thinking back over the past few months.

"If it goes somewhere it goes somewhere." He said shrugging. "If not, well then we can avoid looking like idiots like the rest of them. Whatever you're comfortable with."

I nodded, but even as I agreed, I was thinking over the weeks that had led up to this point, I remembered the night of the dance. How I'd felt when he'd kissed me. That wasn't something I'd be able to ignore for long.

And then I remembered something else.

"You are so full of crap." I said looking up at him and he grinned a little guiltily as if he knew exactly what I was about to say. "You said it was your job to push me out of my comfort zone."

"I was hoping you wouldn't remember that so quickly."

"What the hell?" I asked looking up at him.

"What can I say Tan?" he said amused. "I really like you. I always have."

I rolled my eyes, but didn't push him away as he pulled me closer and kissed the top of my head.

"We can just hang out though, if that's what you want. Besides, I think your dad would kill me if I asked you out so soon after what happened anyways." He said and I was half way to saying it was what I wanted, but I found I couldn't get it out.

Instead, I said.

"We'll see."

We both looked at the house for a few minutes and I wondered what was on his mind. Part of me wondered why looking at it didn't bother me more, I mean, I had almost died here. But as I looked at it, all I could think of was all the time I'd spent here as a kid with Jason. All the memories we'd made here together. As crazy as it sounded, I couldn't help but feel like that night was just another memory. I found I was sad to see the house so damaged.

"So what are you going to do?" I asked. I knew Jason's parents had left him the house, but I didn't know what his situation with his grandfather was. What Jason planned to do after he graduated school this year.

"I was thinking I'd rebuild it." he said with a shrug.

"Can you?" I asked looking up at him in shock.

"I think so. I mean, I help with repairs around the reservation all the time. I don't think it would be too hard, plus my parents left me some money when they passed. It's just been sitting in the bank, waiting until I turned eighteen. I can't really think of anything better to use it for."

"And then what?" I asked looking up at him and he shrugged.

"I dunno," he said frowning. "I guess it depends."

"On the pack?"

"On you." he said and I felt my cheeks burn. "I mean. I don't really want to stay here if you leave."

I didn't know how to respond to this but he didn't seem to require an answer.

We continued to stand there for a while until he suggested we get out of the cold so I didn't freeze.

I wasn't really cold, but I didn't argue. Instead I drove us back to his grandfather's house. Nona had invited us to hang out with the others, but I didn't much feel like being grilled for details about my relationship with Jason, so I spent the afternoon with him. Much too quickly the day ended and I found I was once again on Nona's porch, trying to think of anything I could say to delay his leaving.

"So. I guess I'll see you in school tomorrow?" I asked. I hadn't been to school since I'd gotten out of the hospital, but tomorrow was Monday and I didn't feel like sitting around the house watching TV anymore, hoping Alex might stop by and hang out in the evening.

"Yeah." He said with a smile and gently tugged a strand of my hair like he always used to when we were kids. "If you don't manage to have another near fatal accident on the way there tomorrow."

"Think you'll have time to rescue me if I do?"

"I'll put it in my schedule, just in case." He laughed and I hugged him.

He pulled my close and I closed my eyes, part of me wondering if he was going to try and kiss me again but he didn't.

"I'll see you later Tan." He said letting me go and I waved him off as he walked into the night.

I watched him transform and start running in the direction of his grandfather's house.

Part of me wondered if I was a little disappointed that he didn't kiss me, but I found I wasn't. A swell of excitement went through me as I realized that there would be time for that sort of thing later on. Right now I'd gotten childhood friend back, really back. And like Jason said, if something happened it happened. But the fact that it even had the chance now…

I smiled.

"You're in a good mood." Someone said and I looked up to see Nona and Alex in the living room watching the original 'Star Trek' series.

"I had a good day." I said joining them on the couch.

"So how'd it go?" she asked as I sat next to her.

Alex's arm was around her shoulders and there was a bowl of popcorn in her lap.

"It went fine." I said taking a handful of popcorn out of the bowl.

"Just fine?" she asked sounding disappointed. "What? He didn't ask you out or anything?"

"No Nona, unlike you two, Jason and I can spend time with each other without constantly making out."

Nona went red while Alex grinned slightly and he and I turned back to the show, but she continued to look disappointed.

"So where does that leave you guys then?"

"We're friends." I said shrugging.

"Friends?" she asked as if she thought this was improbable. "After everything you guys went through?"

"I think it's because of everything they went through." Alex said wisely. "They've got too much history. They need to rewrite a little before they can be anything else."

"Well that sucks." Nona said grumpily and I shrugged, but as we continued to watch the show, I couldn't seem to get Jason out of my mind.

I thought of everything we'd been through together, all the things he'd said to me today, and what it had felt like when we'd kissed.

When the marathon ended and Alex had said goodnight, I found I was still thinking about him as I made my way to my room and got ready to go to sleep.

I was just about to get into bed when I stopped. I spotted Jason's hoodie that was hanging next to my jacket by the door and after a moment's hesitation, I picked up my phone.

About five minutes after the text, I heard a rock hit my window and I grinned knowing exactly who it was.

I put on the hoodie and opened the window to see Jason standing outside, looking up at me amused.

"You wanted to see me?" he said with a grin.

"Yeah hold on." I said clambering on to the window ledge, then sliding off it.

He caught me, as I knew he would and I looked up at him, unable to keep from smiling.

"Nice catch."

"Thanks. What's all this about?" he asked and I hesitated for a moment, but then committed.

"I don't want to be friends." I said and he looked surprised for a second, but then set me down.

"What?" he asked looking a little confused.

"I don't want to be just friends." I clarified and he smiled.

"Are you sure?" he asked but his grin was spreading and I nodded.

Ilaughed as he pulled me into a tight hug and then kissed me.

Just like the night of the dance, my brain went blank and I wrapped my arms around him as he pulled me closer, so happy, I didn't think we would ever stop. My heart felt like it was about ready to beat out of my chest and I felt like I could never be close enough to him.

I didn't know how long we stood there but eventually we broke apart.

He looked down at me, his dark eyes as intense as ever and he looked as if he wanted to say something, but was debating if he should.

"Tani, I-" he started but cut himself off, obviously afraid to say what he wanted, but I found I wasn't, because I knew what he was about to say. And it was something that I'd known my entire life. Something I knew would never change, and it was how I felt as well.

"I love you too."


	30. Chapter 30

Well this is the last chapter! Hope everyone enjoyed the story! Thank you for all the follows/favorites/reviews! They mean a lot!

~secrethalfblood

Jpov

It had been a several months since the night of the attack, and the school year was coming to an end. Things had been pretty quiet around the reservation with only the occasional vampire attack that we were able to deal with pretty easily.

With graduation coming up and Tani managing not to almost die over the past several weeks, I found life was pretty good. Better than it had been for a long time.

"Uhg, I hope we never have to deal with a newborn again." Lewis groaned looking at a gash on his arm that had been caused by the latest rogue vampire we'd faced. "Man, they're strong."

"But stupid." Alex said shrugging. Being faster than the rest of us, he'd avoided more serious injuries. "I'd rather face a strong vamp that doesn't know how to fight, than one that's figured out it's got abilities and knows how to keep its head during conflict."

"I'm with Alex on this one." Chase said with a nod as we stepped out of the woods into a neighborhood on the reservation. "Newborns are much easier to fight than the blood suckers that know what they're doing. Even if they pack a harder punch."

"You don't have to worry about that if you can out run them." Alex said with a smirk and the other two laughed as Lewis shot him an annoyed look.

"So, what do you guys want to do today?" Aster asked.

We'd planned to be after this vampire all weekend, so the girls had made other plans.

"I dunno." Lewis said shrugging. "We could go looking for more blood suckers."

"I'm down with that." Alex said looking at Chase who shrugged, but I smiled when I saw Tani, a bandana around her nose and mouth, step out of a garage with paint splattered clothes.

"What do you think Jason?" Aster asked.

I looked at Lewis, who was still trying mop up his arm and around at the rest of the battered pack who were still laughing about their close calls. A few months ago, I would have loved to be laughing like that. To be enjoying the pack, my friends who were closer than brothers, my family, but I found it didn't feel that way today.

I glanced back at Tani, who'd spotted us. She smiled at me.

"Alex. You're in charge." I said walking towards her.

"Ok." He said sounding a little surprised. "For how long?"

"Forever."

"Wait, what?"

I could hear them talking to each other, obviously confused, but felt a great sense of freedom when I realized I could no longer hear their thoughts in my mind.

"Jason?" Alex called after me uncertainly but I ignored him.

"Is he coming back?" Aster asked hesitantly but I tuned them out as I reached Tani.

"Have I told you how adorable you are?" I asked and she looked at me amused.

"Since yesterday?"

"What are you up to?"

"Some guy Alex met at his favorite comic book store wanted me to spray paint a Viking on the side of his van."

"This I've got to see." I said laughing and she gave me a questioning look.

"I thought you guys were busy today?"

"They're busy." I said dismissively. "I'm all yours."

"Are they under strict orders not to bother you?" she asked with a sly grin.

"They will be if Alex tells them." I said shrugging.

"Yeah you'd better be careful leaving him in charge all the time. He might get used to it."

"He'd better. They're his responsibility now."

"Wait," she said confused. "Do you mean…"

"Yes. I am officially retired. Like I said, I'm all yours."

She smiled.

"Well, if you're not busy, there's that new super hero movie that I've been wanting to see. It just came out yesterday."

"You are such a dork."

"Yes, but I'm your dork." She said allowing me to put an arm around her shoulders. She slid one around me as well, and we made our way towards the garage she'd been working in.

We walked in silence for a moment and she looked over her shoulder.

"What?" I asked as I noticed she was looking at the pack.

"Nothing." She said shaking her head and looking up at me. "It's just, do you think you'll miss it? You know, running around with the others killing vampires and all that?"

I laughed and pulled her closer and I saw her smile.

"Not for a second."

"You know." She said as we stepped into the garage with the van she'd evidently just finished painting. "I'm not sure I feel like going to the movies actually."

I admired her handiwork, looking at the massive Viking, blonde, with the horned helmet riding a dragon, with a unicorn running in the background.

"No?"

"Nah, I don't feel like sitting around today. Got anything else for me to paint?" she asked eagerly.

With the help of the pack and Sam, my grandfather and I had been rebuilding my old house and as we finished a room, I'd let Tani paint it with whatever she wanted in it. She kept saying I was crazy for letting her do it, and if I'd ever wanted to sell the house I'd just have to paint over all the walls again, but I liked it. I liked the fact that every time in stepped into a different room of the house, it reminded me of her.

"No not today." I said a little amused seeing her disappointed face. "But that reminds me, I have a present for you."

"You do?" she asked looking a little surprised. "But you already gave me my present last week."

Tani had turned seventeen last Sunday and I'd given her a bunch of new painting supplies.

"I know, but that was only part one of your gift." I said and she looked interested.

"Really?"

"Yes, really?"

"What is part two?" she asked eagerly and I took her hand.

"Come with me."

I dragged her out of the garage and we walked for about fifteen minutes, Tani questioning me relentlessly until we stopped outside the construction site that now contained a mostly finished house.

"What are we doing here?" Tani questioned as we walked up the porch. "I thought you said there was nothing for me to paint today."

"Well, no rooms are ready to paint." I admitted. "But I do have a surprise for you, come with me."

We walked up the bare stare case which was surrounded by drywall and exposed wires running through it. I had to duck under a pipe as we made it to the second floor, then pulled down the ladder that lead to the attic.

"I remembered how much you liked hanging out up here as a kid." I said climbing up the rungs and helping her up the last few feet as she followed me. "It was the only place we had any real privacy from my parents. So I figured, since I wasn't using it."

I shrugged and gestured around at the finished attic and her eye went wide. They traveled over the new paint supplies Nona and Alex had helped me move up here, as well as the sink for her brushes and the storage shelves for her paints. Several easels were set up around the room, that was full of bright light from the many windows and sky lights Sam and I had put in.

"Now you don't have to paint around lawn mowers." I said looking down at her. "And yes, this is my attempt at bribing you to stay here next year."

Tani's parents, who would be moving back to California after their sabbatical was over, had been pressuring her to move back with them next year to finish up high school.

"You made me a studio?" she asked quietly, looking around at the room her eyes wide.

"Yeah." I said smiling slightly at her expression. "Do you like it?"

"I love it." she said turning to look at all the space then looking at me. "Thank you."

"No problem." I said and she pulled me into a quick hug, then went off to inspect her new equipment.

I smiled watching her run around grabbing her paints and brushes, then set up in front of a canvas in the middle of the room thinking she looked just as excited, if not more, than the time I'd gotten her her first real sketch book when we were kids.

Apparently forgetting I was here, she immediately got to work on a new idea and I heard someone climbing up the ladder.

It was Alex, who was quickly followed by Nona and I saw they were looing at Tani, both with the same amused expression.

"I take it she liked her surprise." Alex said his eyes falling on to Tani who was mixing paints.

"Yeah, just a little."

"You know you're never going to get her down from here, right?" Nona asked raising an eyebrow at me. "You basically just lost your girlfriend to your attic."

"That's fine with me, as long as she's painting here, not in California."

"He has a point." Alex said and Nona rolled her eyes.

"So, what else needs to be worked on today?" he asked as we climbed back down the ladder and into the main part of the house.

"Sam's coming over to help dry wall if you want to stick around for that." I said shrugging.

"I'll call the girls and see if they want to help." Nona said brightly and wandered off outside where the cell signal was better.

Alex waited for Nona to get out of earshot before he turned to look at me.

"So I take it from the fact I can't hear what you're thinking, it means you're not coming back." He said quietly and I shook my head.

"Nope. The pack is all yours."

"But why?" he asked looking confused.

"Because I've been ready to leave for a while now." I said honestly and looking up to the attic where Tani had found the speakers I'd left for her, and was blasting her music. "And now I have a good enough reason to."

"So that's it then?" he asked. "You're really not coming back?"

I nodded.

"Why'd you leave me in charge?" he asked quietly. "I never understood why I was second in command over Chase. He's your best friend."

"Friends has nothing to do with who can take care of your brothers." I said shaking my head. "Chase is a great friend, but he's not a leader. You on the other hand. You've never let anyone tell you what you can or can't be. You're calm, you keep your head under pressure, but most importantly, you care about other people. The new pack members need someone like you when they're freaking out over what's happening to them. Don't get me wrong, I like him a lot, but can you imagine if I left them with someone like Lewis?"

Alex shuddered.

"This is a weird feeling." Alex said frowning. "Being in charge of people. I don't know if I can do it."

"You'll be fine." I assured him. "If I managed you'll have no problem."

"Maybe." He ssaid but he still looked uncertain. "So what does that mean for the pack rankings? Do they stay the same or…?"

"That's up to you. Who do you want as your right hand?"

He seemed to think for a moment, then said.

"I'll talk to Aster about it later."

"And remember, you've always got me and Sam to talk to if you need help."

"Thanks." He said smiling and looking a little relieved.

"Are you roping me into more work Jason?" said a voice and we looked over to see that Sam had walked into the room. "Oh, hello Alex. What are you doing here?"

"Accepting his new role as head of the pack." I said and while Alex looked a little embarrassed, Sam seemed unsurprised.

"Finally deciding to retire I see." He said looking at me with approval. "About damn time. Good luck Alex."

"Thanks." He muttered, apparently still in shock.

"So, where are we working today?" Sam asked me.

The rest of the day passed pretty quickly and while Tani didn't emerge from the attic, it was still nice to know she was up there. About half way through the day, the girls and the rest of Alex's pack showed up to help but when evening rolled around, it was just me and Sam again.

Finally, when night had truly fallen, my Grandfather entered the dining room where I was working on the wiring.

"Hey!" he shouted over the radio I'd been playing.

"What is it?" I asked climbing down the step ladder I'd been standing on and switching off the boom box.

"Nona's parents called. They're wondering if you're keeping Tani hostage or if you're ever going to send her home."

"What time is it." I asked and he rolled his eyes.

"Nearly nine o'clock. Have you two been here all day?"

"Yes." I said and he looked amused.

"Well go get your girlfriend before they send a SWAT team to find her."

"Alright." I said with a laugh and made my way up to the attic where I could hear Tani still blaring her music as she worked.

"Hey! Tani!" I shouted expecting to see her in the center of the room where I'd left her, but was surprised to see the canvas on which she'd been working earlier had been abandoned.

"Yeah?" I heard her ask as the music cut out and I saw her, as usual, paint splattered but smiling. She'd been painting one of the walls.

"I think your Aunt and Uncle want you to come home. They sent my grandfather over here to look for you."

"But I'm not finished yet." She said disappointed letting her glasses fall back to her face from the top of her head where they'd been resting.

"You can finish next weekend." I said consolingly and she sighed.

"Fine." She said walking over to me and starting to climb down the ladder. "But you know I don't get anything done when I'm in the middle of a project. There's no point in me going to school until I'm done. I won't do any work."

She continued to rant to herself as she made her way towards the stair case and I looked at what she'd been painting. It was a self-portrait of sorts, with a girl that was obviously Tani on the wall, but that wasn't all that was there. Behind the girl was a massive dark creature, that was standing protectively, glaring out over the room, as if to scare away anything that might try and harm her.

I smiled slightly when I saw it, knowing exactly who it was supposed to be. In the picture behind Tani, stood a wolf.

...

Well, like i said this was the last chapter. I hope you liked it! thanks for all of the positive support. It means so much to me. Have a good one!

~secrethalfblood


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